Brussels, 11/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - Although COP 21 was a success, the EU's climate diplomacy didn't end on 12 December with the signing of the Paris Agreement, but will resume in earnest now over applying the agreement (even though it will not be officially open for signature in New York until 22 April).
Aware of the urgency, European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday 15 February are expected to give the go-ahead to an action plan for climate diplomacy in 2016, the Year of Action.
This was the desire expressed at the European Parliament on 20 January by Laurent Fabius, who had just left his job as French foreign minister, but remains chair of COP 21 until the Marrakesh COP in December 2016 (see EUROPE 11472).
The action plan submitted to the minsters for approval presupposes that the EU will keep the fight against climate change as a strategic priority in all its diplomacy, dialogue, forums (UN Security Council, G7, G20, ICAO, IMO) and all the EU's foreign policy instruments as well, in order to support low-carbon climate-resilient development.
The EU's ambitions stretch far and wide, from getting global aviation and shipping to join the global fight against climate change to the search for innovative additional financing to meet financing commitment to developing countries, via taking account of the direct and indirect impact of climate change on international security, immigration, food insecurity and secure supplies of resources such as water and fuel.
The draft action plan notes that work is needed to ensure the adoption at the ICAO in September 2016 of agreement on a market mechanism applicable to greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation and to encourage agreement in April 2016 at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) on a global data collection system on the use of fuel and an agreement on HFC under the Montreal Protocol.
Prepared by the EU's European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Commission, the draft action plan was endorsed on 10 February by the member states' permanent representatives on COREPER.
It is annexed to the draft conclusions document that foreign minsters are expected to publish. The conclusions document will welcome the Paris Agreement as a major step forward in multilateralism and the fight against climate change and aims to encourage initiatives like those of the G7 on insuring against climate risks and the measures to introduce renewable energy in Africa, work under way at the G20 on green financing and climate financing and the New York forestry statement. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)