Environment Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations on Monday in Japan collectively said they were committed to ensuring global climate change would be tackled swiftly in line with a deal struck in Paris last year.
The ministers at the end of their two-day meeting which was concluded Monday in the City of Toyama (Japan), adopted a joint statement which affirmed their intention to advance the timetable for mid and long-term climate change solutions before the deadline, initially set for 2020.
Japanese Environment Minister, Tamayo Marukawa, Chairman of the meeting, said: “as for the Paris Agreement, we were able to affirm our strong political will that the G7 would take the lead toward implementing measures to tackle climate change..
He said under the Paris Agreement, the average in global temperature rise is to be limited to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as determined by leading environmental scientists and ecologists.
The minister said this was considered essential in preventing, or limiting the effects of the serious fallout from climate change.
The ministers also adopted a new protocol called the Toyama Framework on Material Cycles which is aimed at reducing global food waste per capita by 50 percent by 2030.
They said the new framework also covered recycling waste generated from natural disasters.
The ministerial meeting in Toyama was part of a number of talks on pertinent global issues that would culminate in the G7 leaders’ summit, to be held in Mie Prefecture in central Japan and hosted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on May 26 and 27.