BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany on Friday laid out its programme for its presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) this year, focusing on climate protection, international justice and post-pandemic economic recovery.
Europe’s largest economy will host the G7 summit on June 26-28 at Schloss Elmau, an idyllic, isolated retreat in the Bavarian Alps where it also held the 2015 summit.
Presenting the programme, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany wanted to develop the G7 into a “climate club” working to reach agreements on uniform standards for emissions and CO2 pricing to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement.
“We want to ensure that each country does not go it alone but joins forces,” Scholz said in a joint news conference with Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
Scholz had proposed the idea of the European Union creating a “climate club” last year as a mechanism to avoid trade friction linked to green tariffs.
A planned EU carbon border levy has already stoked tensions with countries including China.
Habeck said Germany will make sure that new green regulations don’t lead to a trade war between countries and called for a reform in international trade policies, without going into details about concrete plans.
“The old fashioned trade policy will certainly experience a renaissance again under new conditions,” Habeck said.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa, Miranda Murray and Sarah Marsh; Writing by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
