Ministers from the Group of Seven nations will hold talks on energy, climate and the environment for two days from Saturday in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo.

Decarbonizing the auto industry is high on the agenda. Much of the focus is on whether host nation Japan can build consensus on issues such as targets for electric vehicles.

The United States and some European nations want to set targets, but Japan has taken a cautious stance. Gas-electric hybrids are more common in the country.

The participants are also divided over fossil fuels. European countries want to set a date for phasing out coal-fired power plants, but Japan maintains that they should still have a role in the future.

The ministers are likely to reach an agreement on the use of hydrogen and ammonia at thermal power plants. The deal would be a first for the G7.

And they are expected to find consensus on solar power. They will likely call for the wider use of next-generation panels, to increase global output to one terawatt by 2030. That's equivalent to 1,000 nuclear plants.

The ministers are also likely to call for greenhouse gas emissions to peak by 2025, in line with the goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Elsewhere in the talks, they are due to compile an action plan for realizing a circular economy in which businesses reuse and recycle resources, and reduce energy consumption.

The G7 ministerial meeting is the first of 15 scheduled to take place in Japan this year.

The group's foreign ministers will hold talks in the central resort town of Karuizawa on Sunday.

The main leaders' summit is scheduled for May in the western city of Hiroshima.