Germany is pushing for G7 leaders to approve public investment in the gas sector at next week’s summit, creating a clash with countries who argue that such support is incompatible with global climate goals.
Tensions have flared in pre-summit discussions as nations including the UK and France reject Germany’s calls to include support for public investment in gas in the meeting’s final document, several people briefed on the talks said.
Environmentalists argue G7 countries should lead global shift away from fossil fuels at Japan summit May 19-21 and avoid watering down commitments achieved last month among the G7 environment ministers.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year and its subsequent move to slash gas supplies to Europe have plummeted Germany and other major consumers of Russian hydrocarbons in an energy crisis from which they are only now recovering.
Berlin’s response has been to build liquefied natural gas terminals on its northern coast, backed by huge government subsidies, and to scour the world for alternative gas supplies.
Germany insisted on the wording of the statement from last year’s G7 summit at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria that it admitted the need for public investment in gas, a move that has led environmental groups to accuse the G7 of “back downon its climate goals.
The 2022 statement said that in the “exceptional circumstances” created by Russia’s war and its blockade of energy supplies, “publicly supported investments in the gas sector may be appropriate as a temporary response.”
“Investments in this sector are needed in response to the current crisis,” he added.
German officials want this year’s communiqué from Hiroshima to include similar wording. “We have to use gas as a transient energy source,” one said. “We cannot overlook the fact that things have changed [with the war in Ukraine] and the overall gas supply is scarce.”
But countries including the UK and France have argued that last year’s gas support was meant to be temporary, saying Germany has already built the LNG terminals it needs, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Germany has insisted that its gas investments are compatible with its climate goals because the LNG terminals it is building can be reused to receive hydrogen, which is cleaner than gas when burned but whose production typically involves significant use of fossil fuels. So-called green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy, has not been developed on a large scale.
Petter Lydén, head of international climate policy at Germanwatch, a non-profit group, called on G7 leaders “to show their commitment to phasing out fossil fuels”.
“Countries like Germany have already successfully found ways to reduce their dependence on gas, and any signals that more gas is needed go directly against known needs,” he said, adding that any reversal from the G7 meeting this month last is “unacceptable”.
In March, a coalition of industry bodies, including the American Petroleum Institute, the Asia Natural Gas & Energy Association, Eurogas and the US Chamber of Commerce, he wrote to G7 leaders, urging them to continue supporting investment in LNG.
At the same time, climate activists have lobbied hard for the G7 to withdraw its support for gas, arguing it harms the environment and communities living near fracking and drilling sites.
EU’s decision to label gas ‘green’ under its financial taxonomy rules after German pressure ignited the spark legal challenges by environmental groups and Member State governments.
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