Brussels, 20/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - Less than five months from the Paris climate conference, COP21 from 30 November to 11 December, EU environment ministers will use the informal Council in Luxembourg, 22-23 July, to discuss the financing of climate action, a key point and a priority of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU for success in Paris (see EUROPE 11361).
Preservation of biodiversity and sustainable development are also on the agenda for the meeting, which will be chaired by Luxembourg Environment Minister Carole Dieschbourg. European Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella and his opposite number at Climate and Energy Miguel Arias Canete will represent the Commission.
COP21. Ministers will discuss the climate action finance “tool box” that will have to be put in place, both in Europe and internationally. Developed countries have pledged to raise $100 billion per year by 2020 to support developing countries' mitigation and adaptation efforts. Hela Cheikhrouhou, executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and Jonathan Taylor, vice-president for Environment and Climate Action at the European Investment Bank (EIB), will take part in the debate.
Ministers will also be brought up to date on international negotiations with debriefings of the Major Economies Forum, which has just met in Mondorf-les-Bains (see other article) and the COP21 informal ministerial consultation held in Paris on 20 July.
Commissioner Canete will set out the Commission's proposal for the structural reform of the emissions trading scheme (ETS) for the period from 2021 to 2030 that will seek to remedy the shortcomings of the scheme and make this major instrument in the EU's climate policy more predictable and fairer (see EUROPE 11360).
Biodiversity. Ministers will hold an exchange of views on the alarming state of biodiversity in Europe. The NGO BirdLife Europe will present its report Halfway there? on the mid-term assessment of the EU biodiversity strategy, which argues that the strategy has totally failed in the agricultural sector and, despite some progress, the extinction of species is continuing (see EUROPE 11326). The exchange of views will inform the conclusions to be adopted by the Environment Council on 16 December. In April, the European Commission's report on the state of nature (see EUROPE 11318) gave rise to a debate at the informal Council meeting in Riga (see EUROPE 11292). The EU strategy set itself the goal of halting biodiversity decline and the weakening of ecosystem services and restoring ecosystems to as great an extent as possible by 2020.
Sustainable development. Ministers will discuss the environmental dimension of the upcoming global programme for sustainable development after 2015 which is due to be agreed in New York at the UN summit, 25-27 September. Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations environment Programme (UNEP), will take part in the discussion. (Aminata Niang)