Why in News?

• Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Germany to attend 48th Group – 7 summits at Schloss Elmau, Bavarian Alps.
• Germany held this year’s presidency of G-7.
• Besides India, Germany presidency also invited Argentina, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa.
• Prime Minister spoke in two sessions that included topics related to Environment, Energy, Climate, Food Security, Health, Gender Equality and Democracy.
• He also held bilateral meetings with several leaders of the participating

About G – 7

• It is an intergovernmental organization that was formed in 1975 with six member countries like the USA, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Japan.
• In 1976, Canada also joined this group and it became G-7.
• Later in 1998, after the disintegration of USSR, Russia became part of G-7 and officially it became G-8.
• Due to violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, group countries have decided to expel Russia.
• The group meets annually to discuss issues of common interests like economic governance, global security and energy policy.
• Japan will have the presidency of next year’s meeting.

Group – 7 in numbers

• According to summit website, group– 7 countries comprise 10% of world’s population, approximately 31% of world’s GDP and 21% of global carbon emissions.
• China and India the emerging economy as well as the two most populous nations of the world are not part of group -7.
• The group does not have any official secretariat. The presidency of this group rotates among member countries each year.
• It is the group of developed countries which play greater role in global trade.
• The US and Germany are in particular major exporting countries. Both have exported goods in 2021 over 1 trillion US dollar.
• In all group -7 countries, annual public sector expenditure exceeded revenue. The most group -7 countries have high level of gross debt, especially Japan (263% of GDP), Italy (151% of GDP) and the US (133% of GDP).

Highlights of the meeting

• Group-7 countries have launched a 600 billion $ collective initiative called it Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) to deliver game changing and transparent infrastructure projects for developing and middle income countries.
• PM Modi highlighted global efforts for LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) campaign to encourage eco-friendly lifestyle for the citizens.
• Group countries also advocated maximizing efforts towards renewable energy for getting target of Paris climate agreement.
• Member countries also discussed about on-going war between Ukraine and Russia and reached at the consensus to sort out oil dependency of European countries on Russia.

India’s Initiative

• India is also signatory of Paris climate agreement that is why India has taken so many steps towards achieving the target such as renewable energy (solar power, wind power, hydropower, biomass, biofuels etc.), green transportation, electric motors etc.
• India has set the target of producing 175 GW by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030 from renewable sources. As of march 2022, India produced approximately 110 GW.
• Today India is one of the most attractive destinations in the world for environment-friendly investments.
• India is doing excellent efforts to become global leader in renewable batteries as well as green hydrogen.
• India has the world’s first fully solar power operated airport.
• India is also using 10% ethanol with petrol and has set the target of 20% in next 3 years.
• It will help to minimize dependency on imported crude oil which increases environmental pollution.