Brussels, 04/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU environment ministers, meeting in Brussels on Friday 6 March, will formalise the EU's offer of contribution to the legally binding climate agreement to be reached in Paris in December at the 21st UN climate conference (COP 21). They will also exchange first impressions of those aspects of the strategic framework for the future energy union that relate directly to climate protection, both domestically and in international negotiations (see EUROPE 11266).
Increased greening of the European semester, global sustainable development beyond 2015 and very worrying developments in the state of the environment in Europe will also be on the agenda for this session of the Environment Council, which will be devoted exclusively to behind closed door exchanges of views.
Latvian Environment and Regional Development Minister Kaspars Gerhards will chair the discussions, in which European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, and Commissioners Karmenu Vella (environment), Miguel Arias Canete (climate action and energy) and Neven Mimica (international cooperation and development) will all take part.
Climate/Roadmap for Paris. The Council will finalise the EU's collective offer of contribution on the basis of projected national efforts (Intended nationally determined contribution, INDC, in the jargon of the UN) to be submitted to the secretariat of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by 31 March (see EUROPE 11263). This is what was decided at the UN (COP 19, Warsaw) for all the parties who are ready. This offer will be a reduction of at least 40% in EU emissions by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, as a collective and binding objective. It will make concrete the conclusions of the European Council of October last year which set out the integrated framework of action for the climate and energy policies until 2030 (see EUROPE 11184). Ministers will also discuss the progress made by the Geneva preparatory conference at which experts, in February, adopted a negotiating text for the Paris agreement.
Energy Union. Environment ministers, like their energy colleagues the previous day, will hold a first exchange of views on the communication presented by the Commission on 25 February. They will be asked by the Latvian Presidency how decarbonisation measures can contribute to the creation of an energy union with a forward-looking climate policy. An overview of the outcomes of the discussions in the Energy and Environment Councils will be set out by the Presidency in a letter to the General Affairs Council to prepare for the European Council of 19 and 20 March.
State of the environment in Europe. Over lunch, ministers will discuss the newly published report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) on The European Environment - state and outlook 2015, which advocates a circular economy and a green economy (see EUROPE 11266).
Greening of the European semester. The Council will exchange views on the environment component of the annual growth survey for 2015 which describes what more the EU can do to help member states return to high growth rates and to make progress towards sustainable development. This discussion will form part of the preparation for the mid-term review of the EUROPE 2020 strategy (see EUROPE 11186).
Sustainable development. Ministers will take stock of current UN negotiations leading to the adoption, at the 69th United Nations General Assembly in September, of a global post-2015 sustainable development and eradication of poverty programme, to follow on from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (see EUROPE 11247). (Aminata Niang)