The Group of 7 (G7) countries today announced their intention to eliminate plastic pollution by 2040 when their Ministers of Climate, Energy and Environment met in Sapporo, Japan.

“We are committed to ending plastic pollution, with the ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040” within the G7, thanks mainly to the circular economy and the reduction or abandonment of single-use and non-recyclable plastics , according to the G7 joint communiqué.

Group of 7 ministers agree to accelerate development of renewable energy

Meanwhile, wealthy Group of 7 (G7) nations agreed to accelerate the development of renewable energy sources and called for reduced natural gas consumption as they aim to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels, the G7 said in a statement today.

While the member countries recognized the need to reduce gas consumption, they nevertheless said that investments in this sector could help address potential energy shortages, according to their communiqué.

G7 ministers meet in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo for two days of meetings on climate, energy and environmental policy. The issues of renewable energy and energy security have gained urgency since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Host Japan, which depends on imports for almost all of its energy needs, wants to continue using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a transition fuel for at least 10 to 15 years.

“We will drastically increase electricity generated from renewable energy,” the G7 members said in their communique, pledging to collectively increase offshore wind capacity by 150 gigawatts by 2030 and solar array capacity to more than 1 terawatt.

Japan: Japanese PM vows G7 meetings will be held safely after ‘smoke’ explosion

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to do everything possible to guarantee that Group of 7 (G7) meetings are held safely, a day after he was rushed away by his bodyguards after an object exploded in pre-election event where an attack was committed.

Kishida walked away from the scene unharmed after an unknown person hurled what appeared to be a “smoke agent” as the prime minister prepared to deliver a speech at a fishing port in western Japan.

The suspect, identified by police as 24-year-old Ryuji Kimura, also had a knife on him when he was arrested and a possible second explosive device that was thrown at the scene when police rushed to defuse it, Kyodo news agency reported.

Fumio Kishida

So far there has been no announcement about the motive for the attack, in which, according to media reports, a police officer was slightly injured.

Speaking to reporters, Kishida said Japan must not allow acts of violence that go against the foundations of democracy. “At a time when high-ranking officials from around the world” are in Japan for two G7 ministerial meetings, the country “as a whole must step up efforts to guarantee security,” Kishida told reporters today.

The incident stirred memories of the assassination last July of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead by a man with an improvised weapon in the middle of his campaign speech.

Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said yesterday that orders have been given to the police to tighten security and that the government will do whatever is necessary to guarantee security when Japan hosts the G7 summit in May in Hiroshima. This weekend, G7 ministerial meetings are taking place in the north and center of the country.