Filenews 27 May 2022
An agreement to ban fossil coal in power generation was reached on Thursday by the G7 countries, rejecting the more ambitious proposal presented by Germany.
In addition, the energy ministers of the G7, who have been meeting since Thursday in Berlin, called on OPEC to increase oil production. The aim is to reduce the pressure on prices that have reached the highest point in a decade due to the war.
"We call on the oil and gas-producing countries to act in a responsible manner and respond to the tightening of international markets, noting even the key role that OPEC can play," the statement issued by the ministers reads, among other things.
High at the meeting of energy and environment ministers was the "urgent" issue of reducing the EU's dependence on Russian gas, for which the G7 highlighted the important role that increased LNG flows from other countries have to play.
Pressure on OPEC
Earlier this month the group's leaders in a meeting pledged that the G7 member states would gradually reduce their dependence on Russian energy flows, which includes the embargo on Russian crude.
The EU in particular has been in talks for days trying to reach an agreement on an embargo on Russian oil, although Hungary's refusal to consent has blocked the process.
Of course, although the call of the G7 has its significance, it is by no means certain that it will be heard by the producing countries. Even the informal head of OPEC, Saudi Arabia, which maintains close relations with the West and especially the US, has resisted pressure to open the taps further with the official argument that there are no shortages in the markets and that the scope for boosting production is limited by many oil-producing states, due to insufficient investment to modernize their infrastructure in previous years.
After all, Russia is also involved in the expanded OPEC+ cartel, which would in no way want to facilitate the West in this way. OPEC+ has remained steadfast in the policy of gradual moderate increases of 400,000 barrels a day, an increase that certainly has failed to stem the price rally that has nearly doubled since last year.
In a statement a few days ago, Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman argued that Riyadh would stand by Russia, as a cartel member state, in a statement that caused discomfort in Western capitals. He had argued that the global community should show greater appreciation for the value of the alliance of oil-producing nations.
Green objectives
However, green issues were of course on the agenda of the two-day meeting of G7 ministers, with the peak being the attempt not to use the war in Ukraine as an excuse to derail states from the environmental goals that have been set.
In this context, the Group committed itself for the first time to the achievement of the target for the de-lignification of the electricity sector by 2035 and gradually to reduce the use of thermal energy, although it failed to agree to an explicit commitment to end the use of coal by 2030, as was the proposal put forward by hostess Germany. Agreement on this issue was reportedly not reached due to opposition from the US and Japan.
In any case, the agreement on the de-lignification of the electricity sector is considered important, as the reservations of Italy, Japan and Canada have been bent. After all, already the US and Germany have set national targets for zero carbon footprint from electricity by 2035 and Britain even earlier.
Source: in.gr/ With information from Financial Times
