The G7 pledged on Sunday to quit fossil fuels faster and urged other countries to follow suit, but failed to agree to any new deadlines on ending polluting power sources like coal. The language reflects the depth of disagreements among the allies on the balance between climate action and energy security, with host Japan leading a pushback against the most ambitious proposals discussed. After two days of talks in the northern city of Sapporo, the bloc's climate and environment ministers vowed to "accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels so as to achieve net zero in energy systems by 2050 at the latest... and call on others to join us in taking the same action". Video: AFP But they offered no new deadlines beyond last year's G7 pledge to largely end fossil fuel use in their electricity sectors by 2035. France's energy transition minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said the "phase-out" wording was nonetheless a "strong step forward" ahead of the G20 and COP28 summits this year. "The most important progress we have made is clearly the fact that we agree to move away from non-carbon-offset fossil fuels," she told AFP. Britain and France had put forward a new goal of ending...
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