The G7 preliminary climate change talks in Germany on June 7 and 8 laid a positive groundwork for the upcoming UN conference in Paris in December where hopes are aimed for a universal agreement on climate.
The G7 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. met for two days on June 7 and 8 in Germany.
The U.N. conference in Paris targets a legally binding and global agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C, which will be a first in over 20 years of U.N. negotiations, the conference web-page promotes.
"The G7 have set out a clear framework for the Paris agreement," Liz Gallagher, climate diplomacy programme leader at Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G), a non-profit organization targeting global transition to sustainable development, told Anadolu Agency, Wednesday.
The seven-country group agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out the use of fossil fuels by 2100.
"It’s not the real deal yet, but it does raise the probability of Paris being a meaningful deal that marks a step change in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," Gallagher added.
The G7 meeting should be able to "accelerate the shift to phase out fossil fuels," Gallagher said and added that the details now need to be negotiated in the UN framework convention on climate change to be held in December.
"Collective action to combat climate change needs to be agreed within the framework of the U.N., including all countries, rich and poor and big and small," Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe, Europe's largest coalition working on climate and energy issues, said.
There is pressure on governments to ensure that the Paris meeting will deliver an outcome that will bring collective action to prevent dangerous climate change, Trio added.
Many of the current commitments are "still insufficient to bring us to a pathway to keep temperature rise well below 2°C," he stressed, but nonetheless expressed his hope for a positive outcome.
"The fact that so many countries have or are in the process of delivering national commitments in the run up to Paris, is a positive sign that a substantial outcome can be reached in Paris," he said.
-EU emission target remains weak
Trio also commented on the EU's 2030 emission pledge during last week's G7 meeting saying it was below the union's capacity.
The four EU member states within the G7, agreed to collectively reduce their emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030.
"This is an important contribution from the EU, but way below what it can do," Trio said and added that this is also well below what could be considered Europe's fair share of the effort to avoid dangerous climate change.
Europe needs to use its full capacity to combat climate change, he asserted.
European countries are also celebrating EU's Sustainable Energy Week between June 15 and 19.
By Zeynep Beyza Karabay
Anadolu Agency
zeynep.karabay@aa.com.tr