At the close of the 50th G7 leaders’ summit in Canada on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, observers have expressed disappointment at the seeming lack of climate leadership, urgency, and ambition from world leaders. 

The G7 make up the richest countries in the world and expected to be the first and fastest to phase out fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy – leading to more prosperity, cleaner air, and cheaper and more reliable energy. In this crucial decade, G7 global leaders must significantly raise their ambition to avert a climate catastrophe, according to a group of climate activists. 

This year’s leaders’ summit took place against a backdrop of devastating wildfires in Canada and a year of increasingly severe weather impacts worldwide due to climate change. The priorities for the summit laid out by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney resulted in a statement on responding to wildfires and a critical minerals plan, but all of the statements failed to include any mention of climate change, let alone any ambitious policy reform to tackle the climate crisis.  

The G7 leaders, said the campaigners, missed a crucial opportunity to lead on climate and to stand up against fossil fuel interests and the Trump administration.

“The G7 includes the most polluting countries and some of the largest fossil fuel expanders, Canada and the United States. These nations bear the historic responsibility to contribute climate finance to the tune of $1.3 trillion annually in non-debt-creating support for Global South nations.

“The G7 must seize the opportunity to reinforce their climate commitments ahead of COP30 in Brazil. Ensuring a dedicated ministerial meeting on energy and the environment is essential – not optional – to drive real climate progress. Without it, the G7 risks arriving at COP30 empty-handed and out of step with the level of urgency the climate crisis demands,” they stated.

Amara Possian, Canada Team Lead, 350.org, said: “As one of the world’s richest, most polluting countries, Canada has a responsibility to lead on climate justice and Prime Minister Carney should use the G7 presidency to raise the bar. To do our fair share, Canada must triple climate finance through grants, cancel Global South debt, make polluters and billionaires pay, and end trade rules that block climate action. This is a defining test of Canada’s commitment to long-term security and prosperity.”

Nicolò Wojewoda, Europe Regional Director, 350.org, said: “European leaders arrived at the G7 with plans to build more nuclear and expand fossil gas, pushing LNG not to solve the climate crisis, but to score points in trade relations with Trump. Europe claims climate leadership but backing more gas infrastructure in a year of record heat and extreme weather is reckless. This summit should be about figuring out how to phase out fossil fuels and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 – not climate hypocrisy.”

JL Andrepont, US Senior Policy Analyst, 350.org, said: “The US left the diplomatic table, again. President Trump’s early exit from the G7 Summit in Canada is part of a continued effort to remove our leadership and commitments from the world stage. We cannot move forward quickly enough on the needed clean, just energy transition with a US government hostile to the very concept of the climate crisis and the readily available tools necessary to fight it – justly sourced and implemented, low-cost wind and solar. The rest of the planet must step forward in our absence to keep the fight to end the fossil fuel era going. Unfortunately, G7 leaders followed in Trump’s footsteps and ended the meeting pretending climate change doesn’t exist. Our people and our planet deserve better.”

Ilan Zugman, Latin America and Caribbean Regional Director, 350.org, said: “Brazil is using the excuse that rich countries haven’t done their part to justify expanding fossil fuels and that is absolutely the wrong path. But let’s be honest: wealthy countries have made it easy for Brazil to fall back on that argument by failing to deliver on climate finance and by continuing to expand their own fossil fuel production. The G7 now has a critical opportunity to show that this is not how it’s done – to demonstrate real courage and political will. By stepping up with bold climate action and serious financial commitments, they can send a clear message: the just energy transition is possible.”

Masayoshi Iyoda,  Japan campaigner, 350.org, said: “Japan must stop seeking to expand its fossil gas investments, which destroy ecosystems, endanger communities, and increase the debt burden of developing nations across Asia. Japan must not buy more gas from the US as part of a trade deal: if we are to survive, our fossil free future is non-negotiable. We instead urge Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to show other G7 leaders that strong, resilient economies must be fueled by renewable energy. We urge the government to be responsive to the needs of future generations—not the short-term profits of fossil companies.”