G7 ministers gather in Italy for 'strategic' talks on climate change

G7 ministers meet for environment and climate change talks in Turin on Monday, with experts urging the highly industrialised countries to use their political clout, wealth and technologies to end fossil fuel use.

The Group of Seven meeting in the northern Italian city is the first big political session since the world pledged at the UN's COP28 climate summit in December to transition away from coal, oil and gas.

It comes as a new report by a global climate institute shows the G7 is falling far short of its targets.

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Turin on Sunday, some burning photos of the G7 leaders as they accused them of failing future generations over the climate crisis.

Rome, which holds the G7 rotating presidency, says it wants Turin to be "a strategic link" between last year's Conference of Parties in Dubai and COP29, which will take place in November in Azerbaijan.

The aim is "to make the course set out by COP28 practical, real, concrete," Italian Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said ahead of the meeting.

Italy says rare earths and renewables will be part of discussions with African delegations invited to Turin.


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