Brussels, 04/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - Time is running out and negotiators from all over the world still have much to do at COP 21, the ministerial segment of which begins on Monday 7 December. European Climate Action Commissioner and EU chief negotiator Miguel Arias Canete was concerned on Friday 4 December that “not enough is being done to get a deal in Paris”.
With the new text tabled having fallen only from 50 pages to 46 and still containing over 1,000 square brackets, the optimism shown by Canete at the opening of the COP was waning (see EUROPE 11438).]
The European Union will continue to fight for an ambitious, comprehensive, legally binding agreement containing a target of a maximum global average temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius, a clause on a five-yearly commitment review and a robust verification mechanism. For the EU, these are the main points, along with financing. European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici pointed out on Friday that the EU, the largest donor, providing €14.5 billion in 2014, “will take its fair share” of the $100 billion per year promised to developing countries by 2020.
Day of reckoning begins on Saturday. Saturday 5 December is the deadline set by COP 21 chairman Laurent Fabius for presentation of an orderly, simplified text in which as many options as possible have been settled before the ministers arrive. On Friday, the European Parliament delegation made clear once again that it would do everything possible to ensure that the agreement contained a reference to 2 degrees Celsius. For the moment, the option of 1.5 degrees features in brackets along with 2 degrees. The concept of fairness is also in brackets, along with the whole of the paragraph on loss and damage. And nowhere is there to be found any trace of a long-term target.
“Our challenge in Paris will be to build confidence between all the parties. We all need an agreement - but not just any agreement. First and foremost, the 2 degrees Celsius target has to be there”, states Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy), chair of the Parliament environment committee who will lead the Parliament delegation from 7 December until the end of COP 21. “The European Union must not be the only one to put in place high standards for business. Efforts have to be shared by all including, where necessary, helping the other countries to move more quickly to cleaner technologies”, he said. The Economic and Social Committee called on world negotiators to make COP 21 a “game changer”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)