G7 Ministers Agree to Cut Gas Consumption and Speed-up Renewable Energy

G-7 ministers on climate, energy and environment pose for a photo during its photo session in Sapporo, northern Japan, Saturday, April 15, 2023. hk Sapporo, JPN (AP Photos)
G-7 ministers on climate, energy and environment pose for a photo during its photo session in Sapporo, northern Japan, Saturday, April 15, 2023. hk Sapporo, JPN (AP Photos)
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G7 Ministers Agree to Cut Gas Consumption and Speed-up Renewable Energy

G-7 ministers on climate, energy and environment pose for a photo during its photo session in Sapporo, northern Japan, Saturday, April 15, 2023. hk Sapporo, JPN (AP Photos)
G-7 ministers on climate, energy and environment pose for a photo during its photo session in Sapporo, northern Japan, Saturday, April 15, 2023. hk Sapporo, JPN (AP Photos)

The Group of Seven rich nations have agreed to call for reducing gas consumption and increasing electricity from renewable sources while phasing out fossil-fuels faster and building no new coal-fired plants, France's energy transition minister said on Saturday.

G7 environment and energy ministers, however, could not agree on a specific date to exit coal power, France's Agnes Pannier-Runacher told reporters on the first of two days of climate and energy talks in Sapporo in northern Japan.

"The G7 countries have agreed that the first response to the energy crisis must be to reduce energy and gas consumption… For the first time ever, the G7 said that we must accelerate the phasing out of all unabated fossil fuels... Finally, it sent a message about accelerating renewable energy," Pannier-Runacher said.

The G7 decided to endorse a goal to "drastically increase electricity generated by renewable energies," a person with knowledge of the discussions separately told Reuters, asking not to be identified because the information is not public.

Ministers also appeared to be considering numerical targets for increasing solar power capacity to at least 1 terawatt and offshore wind power capacity to 150 gigawatts by 2030, the source said.
Energy-poor Japan was pushing for investments to stay for the gas industry in order to keep the liquefied natural gas in the energy mix as a transition fuel, winning some - but not all - support from the rest of G7.

"The imperatives on gas supply are only short-term. This implicitly means that we cannot invest in the exploration of new gas capacity," Pannier-Runacher said, adding that nuclear energy is backed by G7 as a "solution for the energy transition" with security of supply.

The event has also put focus on the need to help emerging countries reduce emissions, including through financing.

"We, the G7, need to not only reduce our own emissions but also take concrete actions to achieve emission reductions globally," Japan's Economy and Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said in his opening remarks, singling out countries in the "Global South".

Nishimura said ministers would like to discuss ways to use finance to help reduce carbon in so-called "hard-to-abate" industries, which include chemicals, shipping and steel.

"On climate finance, we must make a fairer deal for the 'Global South'", said Sultan Al Jaber, the United Arab Emirates minister of industry and advanced technology, told a closed session, according to his remarks seen by Reuters.

"Developed countries first need to follow through on the $100 billion pledge they made to developing countries over a decade ago."

'STRONGER LEADERSHIP'
The issue of emissions in emerging markets has long been a focus for developed countries. However, the world's richest countries need to do more to help emerging nations reduce carbon, said Alden Meyer, a senior associate at E3G, a climate change think tank.

"There's a responsibility for the G7 and other developed countries to provide finance and to mobilize private finance as well to help the decarbonisation of the developing countries," Meyer told a briefing ahead of the start of the G7 meeting.

G7 countries must exert "much stronger leadership" in leveraging financial and technology resources to help developing countries reduce emissions, Meyer said.



UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)

More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to UN health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children.

In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under one year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023.

Officials acknowledged, however, that the collapse of international aid this year will make it more difficult to reduce the number of unprotected children.

In January, US President Trump withdrew the country from the WHO, froze nearly all humanitarian aid and later moved to close the US AID Agency. And last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it was pulling the billions of dollars the US had previously pledged to the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the group had “ignored the science.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has previously raised questions the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine, which has proven to be safe and effective after years of study and real-world use. Vaccines prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths a year, according to UN estimates.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

UN experts said that access to vaccines remained “deeply unequal” and that conflict and humanitarian crises quickly unraveled progress; Sudan had the lowest reported coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

The data showed that nine countries accounted for 52% of all children who missed out on immunizations entirely: Nigeria, India, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola.

WHO and UNICEF said that coverage against measles rose slightly, with 76% of children worldwide receiving both vaccine doses. But experts say measles vaccine rates need to reach 95% to prevent outbreaks of the extremely contagious disease. WHO noted that 60 countries reported big measles outbreaks last year.

The US is now having its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, while the disease has also surged across Europe, with 125,000 cases in 2024 — twice as many as the previous year, according to WHO.

Last week, British authorities reported a child died of measles in a Liverpool hospital. Health officials said that despite years of efforts to raise awareness, only about 84% of children in the UK are protected.

“It is hugely concerning, but not at all surprising, that we are continuing to see outbreaks of measles,” said Helen Bradford, a professor of children’s health at University College London.

“The only way to stop measles spreading is with vaccination,” she said in a statement. “It is never too late to be vaccinated — even as an adult.”