Brussels, 06/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The highly anticipated position of the finance ministers of the EU for the UN climate conference of Paris (COP 21, 31 November - 11 December) will be finalised on Tuesday 10 November in Brussels, at the meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council.
This meeting of the EU finance ministers will coincide with the end of the 'pre-COP', in other words the final ministerial meeting of international negotiations before COP 21, to be held in Paris from 8 to 10 November (see EUROPE 11421).
The conclusions anticipated from the Ecofin Council aim to add to the EU's negotiation mandate for COP 21, as decided upon by the Environment Council of 18 September for all planks of the future agreement, with the exception of the financial plank (see EUROPE 11392 and EUROPE 11365). However, the money will be the crux of the fight against climate change and a decisive element for securing an agreement in Paris, as all have tirelessly repeated. The Council will underline this as well.
The ministers are expected to confirm the EU's commitment to taking on its fair share of the $100 billion a year pledged by the rich countries up to 2020 to support the adaptation and attenuation efforts of the developing countries. They already did so in September, at their informal meeting.
The draft conclusions to be submitted for the scrutiny of the ministers recalls that the EU provided €14.5 billion of climate funding in 2014, more than the previous year. However, the Council will refrain from making any estimate of the contributions for 2015. The figure of €13.6 billion, initially referred to indicatively, has been deleted from the text, out of concerns that it will send a negative signal out to the whole world. Admittedly, a few member states (Belgium, Romania, Croatia, Poland and Greece) have not yet submitted their figures, but their contributions are not expected to allow the EU to exceed its 2014 performance. “2014 was an exceptional year and the methodology used by the Commission to calculate its contributions is not the same for 2014 and 2015”, an expert told EUROPE.
The Council is expected to stress that the EU and its member states have announced an increase in their contributions in public and private funds for the coming years and to recognise that the private funding will add to, rather than replace, public funding, which aims to reassure the developing countries. They are also expected to stress that the role of public policies and measures is to reorientate and mobilise sources of private financing such as carbon pricing - a vital instrument - green bonds and public/private partnerships. The Council will welcome the joint declaration and methodology presented on 6 September by the donor countries to ensure the monitoring of the private funds made available.
In the draft conclusions, the Council proposes that the provisions on climate funding in the future Paris agreement should be “dynamic”, as should the agreement itself, in order to allow the various parties to adapt their approach to future requirements and the evolution of economic, fiscal and environmental reality, on the basis of the capacity and responsibility of each.
The Council will welcome the amount of $62 billion already made available by the developed countries in 2014 and announced by the OECD in Lima (see EUROPE 11408). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)