UK minister: G7 reaches ‘historic’ deal to abandon coal in first half of 2030s

The Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies has reached an agreement to abandon coal in the first half of the 2030s, according to Minister Andrew Bowie, a British negotiator.

“We do have an agreement to phase out coal in the first half of the 2030s,” Bowie told CNBC Class on the sidelines of the G7 ministerial meeting in Turin, Italy. “This is, by the way, a historic agreement, something that we weren’t able to achieve at COP28 in Dubai last year,” he said. Bowie’s formal title is parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Bowie’s statement was echoed by Italian Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. “There is a technical agreement, we will seal the final political deal on Tuesday,” Fratin said, as quoted by Reuters.

An official statement on the G7 decarbonization commitments is due later today.

The G7 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with the European Union as a special, “non-enumerated” member.