Brussels, 27/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - A month before the United Nations climate conference in Paris (COP 21, 30 November-11 December), EU environment ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on Monday 26 October, took stock of progress in international climate talks.
While hailing the draft agreement and draft decision that goes along with it, as approved by negotiators in Bonn on 23 October, all said that much remained to be done.
The text, reduced from 80 to 51 pages, remains virtually undecipherable with alternatives and a multitude of square brackets in each of the 28 Articles. It has the merit, at least, of reflecting the EU's position among its options. And while the EU is not surprised that the text has been rejected by the G77 group because of the shortage of funding, it hopes that the final stretch before the COP 21 conference will be used well to build bridges between all interests. Luxembourg minister Carole Dieschbourg, who chaired the Environment Council meeting, underlined that most issues remain to be settled. “There is much still to be done. It is time for governments to show leadership and we have to increase the pressure from the EU to try to achieve an ambitious and credible result in Paris”, she said, stating that the key points for the EU remained “a long-term goal, greater transparency and accountability and review cycles”.
French Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Minister Ségolène Royal, whose country will chair COP 21, urged that COP 21 be put “at the very heart of the European agenda in order to speed up mobilisation”, making use of an unprecedented context and dynamic, as witnessed by the submission of 150 offers (intended nationally determined contributions - INDCs) to the Paris agreement.
The UN will present its summary report in Berlin on 30 October on the combined impact of the INDCs submitted to the UNFCCC secretariat.
Royal told her ministerial counterparts that France will organise a pre-COP, in Paris 8-10 November, and that French President François Hollande will visit China in November. The pre-COP, at which over 60 ministers from all of the negotiating groups have already announced their intention to attend, will provide an opportunity to “explore avenues for compromise” and “identify the main points on which political will be needed for agreement to be reached”. It will be for heads of state and government across the whole world to provide the political impetus at the highest level and to give their negotiators a clear mandate for the opening of COP 21 on 30 November. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)