Internationale Klimapolitik

The G7 Leaders’ Summit under the German presidency will take place in Elmau at the end of June. In this blog, we outline three essential issues on the climate agenda that G7 leaders should prioritize if they are to make the summit a success.

One of the most prominent projects launched by Germany during its G7 presidency has been the initiation of an international “climate club”. The push for an international climate alliance has come at the right time: A properly designed climate alliance can make an important contribution to global emissions reduction and climate justice, accelerate industrial transformation around the world, and create conditions for fair competition. In the worst case, however, the existence of a climate alliance can have the opposite of its intended effect; for example, if it is seen as an exclusive project of the West.

This briefing from Climate Action Network International (CAN) and The Loss and Damage Collaboration lays out the expectations of civil society and international loss and damage experts towards the Glasgow Dialogue on Loss & Damage (L&D) finance and makes concrete suggestions for its principles, milestones and deliverables. It does so with the ultimate objective of making the dialogue a results-oriented process through which adequate, new and additional support for the most vulnerable people and countries in addressing L&D is provided.

At the forthcoming G7 Ministerials this week and next, Germany should push for stronger joint efforts to exit international fossil fuel financing. Considering the latest IPCC findings and the urgent need to stop investment in coal, oil and gas, the financial activities of public finance institutions (PFIs) play an important role to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. This paper analyses the alignment of German and Korean PFIs’ climate and sector strategies with the Paris Agreement and makes recommendations on how their strategies can align with a 1.5°C goal.

With the war against Ukraine dragging on for over a month now, the vulnerabilities of the G7 and, particularly, of low- and middle-income countries have become increasingly visible. As leading industrialised countries and, historically, major contributors to the climate crisis, the G7 will need to live up to their responsibility to support countries in building resilience to climate impacts and other global crises. In this blog, we outline possibilities for the G7 to address the vulnerabilities in their own countries, and far beyond, to increase resilience against future crises while also supporting other nations.

The leading industrialised countries have a particular responsibility to address the climate crisis – but they failed to meet their former commitments. The German G7 presidency now offers the opportunity to take important steps towards a new paradigm for climate finance. Against that backdrop, this policy brief formulates five key asks to the G7 governments.