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G7 going over 2035 end date for coal-fired power plants, source says

Energy ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy nations meeting in Italy are discussing setting a typical target date of 2035 to close down their coalpowered power plants, a source near the matter told on Monday.

A contract on coal would mark a substantial action in the direction indicated by the COP28 United Nations climate top in Dubai last year to shift far from nonrenewable fuel sources, of which coal is the most contaminating.

Diplomatic arbitrators for the G7 nations - Italy, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan - gone over the concern until late on Sunday, with one country still opposing the relocation, said the source, who asked not to be called.

The energy ministers' conference hosted by Italy, which holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, runs on Monday and Tuesday in the 17th century Venaria palace, a former royal residence outside Turin.

Demonstrators collected in Turin on Sunday evening, setting fire to photos of G7 leaders they say are not doing enough to fight climate change, and chanting slogans consisting of Them 7, us 99%.

Along with looking for a deal on ending coal in electrical energy generation, Rome also intends to stimulate efforts to establish battery storage capacity and increase investment in power grids, two sources said, as the G7 increases its renewable energy output.

The G7 bloc could indicate the need for a six-fold increase in battery capability - important to save renewable resource, which is intermittent - by 2030 from 2022 levels, one of the sources stated.

Nuclear energy and biofuels are 2 other problems at the top of Italy's agenda for the meeting, and it wants to see both energy sources in the final communique amongst options G7 countries can pick to cut their usage of nonrenewable fuel sources in power generation and transportation, the sources stated,

The right-wing Italian government says atomic energy ought to play a part in fulfilling the nation's 2050 net-zero emissions target, despite the fact that nuclear power was turned down in a 2011 nationwide referendum.

Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin stated on Sunday that Rome intended to encourage the European Commission to acknowledge that biofuels can substantially lower (carbon dioxide). emissions from automobiles.

Italy's energy ministry declined to discuss the problems. being negotiated at the Turin G7 meeting.