The Group of Seven nations plans to launch a green alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative when the leaders meet at their annual summit, according to two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports. The G7 summit will take place under British chairmanship in Cornwall June 11-13.
“The strategy, expected to be called the ‘Clean Green Initiative,’ would provide a framework to support sustainable development and the green transition in developing countries, the people said. The initiative will also be on the summit agenda for the leaders.” However, it is not clear whether the G7 will decide to put some money behind the initiative, as the initial purpose was “a pledge toward creating a strategic framework.”
G7 member countries also quarrel on where to focus: the U.S. wants to focus on Central and South America, whereas France, Germany and Italy want to focus on Africa, and Japan on Asia. They apparently believe that developing nations are so stupid as to accept CO₂ tradeoffs instead of development.
In a related development, UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance Mark Carney is struggling to get his Global CO₂ Trading scheme ready by the end of this year. The group set up by Carney, the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, is divided on major issues that have to do with the price of CO₂: Whereas some members are pushing for a global regulating agency, Carney wants prices to be determined by “the markets,” which means they can be manipulated at will. Carney insists with the target of a $100 billion market by the end of the decade—a difficult target to achieve from the supply side.