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Recommendations for the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Summit

John Kirton, G7 Research Group; Audrey Kitagawa, International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation; Jonathan Luckhurst, Soka University; and Hirotsugu Terasaki, Soka Gakkai International
April 5, 2023
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This compilation synthesizes the recommendations for G7 leaders to act upon at the Hiroshima Summit on May 19–21, 2023. These recommendations arise from the international conference on "Advancing Security and Sustainability at the G7 Hiroshima Summit" at Soka University in Tokyo on March 29, 2023. The authors alone are responsible for the content of these recommendations. Further details on these recommendations will be provided upon request.

Priority Recommendations

Strengthening the G7 System

  1. Meet more often to address immediate crises and advance G7 priorities.

  2. Hold more ministerial meetings, including for the environment, climate change and health and for new portfolios such as defense.

  3. Create synergies in G7 cooperation with the G20 and United Nations on key aspects of the UN agenda, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

  1. Reinforce the G20's declaration that the "use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible."

  2. Adopt a policy of no-first use of nuclear weapons and encourage other states to do so.

  3. Work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons by reaffirming the goal of achieving a world without nuclear weapons and initiating negotiations on a time-bound commitment to progressively reduce and ultimately eliminate nuclear arsenals (e.g., by 2045).

  4. Recognize the complementary nature of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, create a forum between them, and cooperate on nuclear-related victim assistance, environmental remediation and the development of an effective verification system.

Climate Change and Clean Energy

  1. Move up net zero targets as close as possible to 2040 following the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

  2. Nurture nature as greenhouse gas emission sinks by growing forests and expanding forestry management, preserving peatlands and grasslands, widening wetlands around the world, protecting and restoring natural ecosystems, and greening cities. Prioritize conservation. Link biodiversity protection more strongly to climate change.

  3. Ease the burden on low- and middle-income societies managing climate and economic transitions and compensate their financial costs.

  4. Provide new and additional funding including through the Loss and Damage Fund to compensate for the disproportionate impact of climate change on the Global South and on marginalized groups, particularly at the grass roots level.

Health

  1. Expand resilient health systems and universal health coverage to ensure timely and equitable access to medical countermeasures to flexibly tackle public health emergencies.

Recommendations

A. Strengthening the G7 System

G7 leaders should:

  1. Meet more often to address immediate crises and advance G7 priorities.

  2. Hold more ministerial meetings, including for the environment, climate change and health and for new portfolios such as defense.

  3. Include India incrementally, to the degree that it promotes non-proliferation at home and abroad.

  4. Make the civil society University 7+ Alliance a formal engagement group.

  5. Discuss the G7's long-term strategic priorities.

  6. Listen to and address Global South concerns.

  7. Create synergies in G7 cooperation with the G20 and United Nations on key aspects of the UN agenda, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

  8. Consider strengthening the role of Africa, including the African Union, in major global institutions.

Compliance

G7 leaders should:

  1. Refer to democracy or human rights in commitments.

  2. Establish working groups or task forces on particular subjects.

B. Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

G7 leaders should:

  1. Strongly condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine and Russia's threat to use nuclear weapons.

  2. Reaffirm the Budapest Memorandum.

  3. Continuously condemn and act strongly against any activities that promote nuclear proliferation such as recent aggressive action by North Korea including the launch of nuclear-capable missiles.

  4. Send a strong message against activities that promote nuclear proliferation, such as Iran's pursuit of making nuclear weapons.

  5. Reinforce the G20's declaration that the "use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible."

  6. Endorse the Reagan-Gorbachev axiom that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought."

  7. Preserve the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and fulfill our existing commitments from the 1995 extension conference and the 2000 13 Practical Steps and the 2010 further commitments.

  8. Recognize the complementary nature of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the NPT, create a forum between them, and cooperate on nuclear-related victim assistance, environmental remediation and the development of an effective verification system.

  9. Reinforce the resources of the International Atomic Energy Agency for monitoring and compliance with international norms and standards.

  10. Raise ambition on the conversion of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium in research reactors and military equipment; reduce stockpiling nuclear-grade material, ultimately phase out and prohibit HEU machinery, the potential for states to sell or use the HEU for nuclear weapons development; and reduce the amount of weapons-grade material in countries that are holding onto it for military purposes.

  11. Strengthen the norms that strictly prohibit any attack on peaceful nuclear facilities including nuclear power plants as such attacks severely damage the surrounding environment.

  12. Call on Russia to resume negotiations or dialogue with the United States to reduce strategic and non- strategic nuclear weapons as soon as possible.

  13. Start negotiations or dialogue for nuclear risk reduction that would prevent any unintentional use of nuclear weapons by miscalculation, misunderstanding or miscommunication.

  14. Adopt a policy of no-first use of nuclear weapons and encourage other states to do so.

  15. Work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons by reaffirming the goal of achieving a world without nuclear weapons and initiating negotiations on a time-bound commitment to progressively reduce and ultimately eliminate nuclear arsenals (e.g., by 2045).

  16. Honor and abide by the international legal instruments that have arisen out of humanitarian laws that seek to prohibit nuclear weapons and eventually eliminate them.

  17. Recognize that laws, the judiciary and enforcement bodies establish adjudicatory processes to determine justice based on the foundation of morals, ethical principles and values.

  18. Agree that all G7 leaders visit Nagasaki, the last city to have suffered a nuclear weapons attack, during or on the margins of the Hiroshima Summit.

  19. Include nuclear disarmament on the agenda of future G7 summits.

  20. Support disarmament and non-proliferation education initiatives globally by transforming awareness and clarifying the purpose of disarmament education in support of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Hiroshima Action Plan.

Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Compliance

G7 leaders should:

  1. Identify North Korea's missile tests, Russia's threats to deploy nuclear weapons or other such actions as a "shock," "crisis" or "threat" in the communiqué.

  2. Make more commitments on non-proliferation.

  3. Set a multi-year target and commit funding.

C. Climate Change and Clean Energy

G7 leaders should:

  1. Strengthen support for democracy as a crucial basis for climate change action.

  2. Accelerate the speed of renewable energy expansion to support rural communities while combatting climate change.

  3. Invest in necessary grid infrastructure.

  4. Move up net zero targets as close as possible to 2040 following the recommendation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

  5. Expand battery and other storage capacity.

  6. Eliminate remaining subsidies for fossil fuels now.

  7. Shift subsidies to fully reliable renewables free of greenhouse gas emissions, such as pumped hydro, geothermal, tidal and wave power.

  8. Phase out coal use well before 2030, ideally between 2025 and 2028.

  9. Phase out all fossil fuels.

  10. Support just transitions.

  11. Accelerate energy efficiency improvements in the building sector and invest in the supporting labor capacity building.

  12. Phase out greenhouse gas–emitting vehicles in the transport sector by 2035.

  13. Support research into green hydrogen and biofuels for hard-to-abate sectors.

  14. Promote and regulate for green financing.

  15. Mobilize digital technologies and artificial intelligence for the clean energy transition.

  16. Expand financial support and capacity building for clean energy transitions in developing countries.

  17. Ease the burden on low- and middle-income societies managing climate and economic transitions and compensate their financial costs.

  18. Reduce packaging waste, eliminate harmful one-way plastic use and require more recycling.

  19. Nurture nature as greenhouse gas emission sinks by growing forests and expanding forestry management, preserving peatlands and grasslands, widening wetlands around the world, protecting and restoring natural ecosystems, and greening cities. Prioritize conservation. Link biodiversity protection more strongly to climate change.

  20. Develop climate clubs with developing countries to accelerate their energy transition.

  21. Commit to a Clean Energy Transition "Marshall Plan" for Ukraine.

  22. Prioritize climate security as a critical component of human security and a prerequisite for other priorities and recognize the concept of planetary boundaries.

  23. Prioritize energy conservation.

  24. Strengthen energy efficiency standards, sustainable building standards and public transportation.

  25. Provide new and additional funding including through the Loss and Damage Fund to compensate for the disproportionate impact of climate change on the Global South and on marginalized groups, particularly at the grass roots level.

  26. Redirect resources away from the private sector (especially the fossil fuel sector) to the public sector and communities in regions and countries most affected by and vulnerable to climate change.

  27. Increase investment in research and development for genuinely clean energy technologies and ensure the sustainability of other climate technologies.

  28. Support the circular economy, including for critical minerals.

Climate and Clean Energy Compliance

G7 leaders should:

  1. Refer to international laws and norms in commitments.

  2. Make a healthy climate a human right.

  3. Strengthen democratic institutions and human rights. 32. Set one-year deadlines in commitments.

D. Health

G7 leaders should:

  1. Expand resilient health systems and universal health coverage to ensure timely and equitable access to medical countermeasures to flexibly tackle public health emergencies.

  2. Increase multi-layered global health governance, with the World Health Organization at the core, in response to climate change and through a One Health approach.

  3. Collaborate on health with the Global South and India's G20 presidency.

Health Compliance

G7 leaders should:

  1. Refer to the World Health Organization and the United Nations in commitments.

  2. Pledge financial support, for example for the Global Fund.

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