Brussels, 26/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - With less than a week to go before the start of the UN's climate conference in Lima (COP 20, 1-12 December), the European Parliament expects a decisive contribution from the EU and all parties to the negotiations so as to ensure that an ambitious and binding agreement is concluded in Paris in 2015 (COP 21, December 2015), allowing global warming to be contained below 2 degrees Celsius (see EUROPE 11192). The resolution adopted in Strasbourg by a large majority on Wednesday 26 November calls for urgent and effective measures because climate change is an urgent and potentially irreversible threat for human societies, biodiversity and the planet - and therefore calls for an international response.
“We'll be facing a significant political challenge in Lima - to convince all stakeholders that we need to invest in climate policy in order to save the environment, create jobs and develop sustainable technologies. This requires stepping up our efforts within the international community (…) The recent agreement between the US and China are a step in the right direction, but this in only a beginning”, says Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy), who will lead the Parliament's delegation in Lima (see EUROPE 11196).
MEPs believe that the Paris conference should enable the architecture and key objectives of the future agreement to be defined. The Parliament reiterates that the EU and its member states should contribute more to the UN Green Climate Fund which must reach $100 billion by 2020 in order to support the developing countries' efforts of adaptation and mitigation, and the Parliament calls on other developing countries to do the same (see EUROPE 11198).
European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete underlined the importance of Lima for delivering three outcomes: - a good understanding of elements of a draft negotiating text; - agreement on the way the parties are to present, in March 2015, their intended nationally determined contributions to the Paris agreement so that their contributions can be quantified and compared; - progress on reducing the gap between the offers of emission reduction for 2020 and the level of ambition required. The position the EU will defend was defined at the last Environment Council, following the European Council of 23-24 October (see EUROPE 11186). The conditions are thus satisfied for the EU to speak with a single voice in Lima. (AN)