The leaders of the world’s biggest economies have issued a joint statement to spell out their commitment to driving the clean energy agenda.

As the G7 met in Japan the seven nations issued their statement on green energy transition and their determination to lead the world’s efforts to tackle the growing climate crisis.

The statement said the solutions would need funding and participation from the private sector.

“We recognize that public and private investment in the industries of the future both at home and around the world will be necessary to achieve these goals and that further cooperation is necessary in order to fill the investment gap for the clean energy transition to lower the cost of the energy transition worldwide,” It explained. “We acknowledge that our trade policies will play a major role in achieving our common goals and that these must be based on our commitment to strengthening the rules-based, fair, equitable, and transparent multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core.

“We are working to comprehensively reform and strengthen the multilateral trading system so that it can effectively respond to the most pressing issues of our time including sustainable development and the clean energy transition. “

The seven said they were committed to a just transition to a clean energy economy that achieves sustainable growth and high-quality jobs.

As such there was a requirement to build secure, resilient, affordable, and sustainable clean energy supply chains and strong industrial bases that reduce undue strategic dependencies and benefit local workers and communities around the world.

“Our commitments to engage in policies that effectively incentivize partners to achieve an ambitious clean transition of their economies, lift workers, support marginalized communities, protect the environment, and uphold and strengthen the rules-based multilateral system,” The statement added. “Acknowledging the clean energy aspirations of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and the critical role they play in the clean energy transition, our Action Plan seeks to deepen our cooperation with and support for partners around the world to ensure that the transition to the clean energy economies of the future reduces poverty and advances shared prosperity.”

It continued: “We recognize that achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement urgently requires significant new incentives, industrial policies, and public as well as private investments. We recognize that the clean energy transition will require filling the investment gaps to lower the cost of energy transition globally.

“We will work to ensure that our regulations and investments will make clean energy technologies more affordable for all nations and help drive a global, just energy transition for workers and communities that will leave no one behind.”

The G7 will also seek  to use trade policies to further reduce emissions.

“We will pursue trade policies that drive decarbonisation and emissions reduction, by spurring markets to account for embedded emissions in traded goods and affirm that environmental standards should not be lowered to unfairly gain competitive advantage,” they stated. “We recognize that, while sharing common goals, our climate policies may take different approaches including carbon pricing mechanisms, regulations, and incentives. We will also collaborate intensively on our efforts to develop the necessary data and tools, such as information on embedded emissions throughout supply chains, to implement such policies.”

The statement added supply chain resilience was now a vital part of the climate fight.

“The Covid-19 pandemic and the energy crisis have laid bare vulnerabilities in our supply chains, with significant impacts within and beyond our borders,” it explained. “We share a goal to increase total investment in the clean energy manufacturing supply chain and accelerating the development and deployment of relevant technology.  We look forward to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) report of its progress on clean energy supply chain by COP 28. In addition, we recognize the importance of analysing vulnerabilities of our supply chains including stress testing.

“We put emphasis on scaling up investments globally into the manufacturing and installation of clean energy technologies and diversifying clean energy supply chains in a way that ensures they are secure, resilient, affordable, and sustainable, seeking to reduce and avoid undue dependency arising from geographically concentrated clean energy supply chains.”