Group of Seven leaders acknowledged the need to build more natural gas infrastructure to deal with the global energy crisis in a statement in tension with the group’s most recent commitment to end most overseas fossil fuel financing by the end of this year.
The heads of state concluded their meeting Tuesday with promises to spend more to expand renewable energy in their respective countries but noted that investment in liquefied natural gas projects would also be necessary to reduce their dependence on Russian energy.
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The leaders said that “investment in [the LNG] sector is necessary in response to the current crisis” and “publicly supported investment in the gas sector can be appropriate as a temporary response.”
The embrace of LNG follows a commitment that G-7 environment ministers made on May 27 to end direct public support for unabated fossil fuel projects, meaning those unaccompanied by emissions-capturing technologies, by the end of this year. But that pledge included an exception for “limited circumstances clearly defined by each country that are consistent with a 1.5 °C warming limit and the goals of the Paris Agreement.”
Six of the G-7 nations, with the exception of Japan, made a similar nonbinding commitment to end most unabated fossil fuel financing this year.
The endorsement of LNG falls in line with actions the G-7, which includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and Canada, has already taken since the war in Ukraine began to increase LNG supplies from friendly nations as a means of displacing Russian gas. Germany and Italy are Russia’s two largest natural gas customers and have sought more gas from the U.S., Qatar, and African nations.
The Biden administration, for its part, has committed to helping supply the European Union with several hundred billion cubic meters of U.S.-produced LNG through 2030.
Many Republicans and some Democratic-aligned analysts have long encouraged a federal policy promoting U.S. LNG as a cleaner alternative to Russian gas and one that is defensible on climate change mitigation grounds.
Environmental groups, however, in general oppose the production of more fossil fuels and have been critical of President Joe Biden and the Europeans for pursuing more LNG projects and infrastructure. Groups leveled additional criticisms at the G-7’s conclusions on Tuesday.
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Collin Rees, the U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, called the declaration “an egregious betrayal of President Joe Biden’s climate commitments.”
“So far, we’ve seen a disappointing lack of tangible progress, and this backtracking from the administration’s recent pledge to help the world phase out fossil finance is simply unacceptable,” Rees said.
