Brussels, 04/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Signing the Paris Agreement and putting it into practice in the EU in order to make good on the promises made at COP 21 is a priority and the EU must continue to play a leading role at international level. All of the European Ministers of the Environment agreed on this, in Brussels on Friday 4 March, during a debate on the assessment of the Agreement and its implications for the EU, in preparation for the European Council of 17 and 18 March.
However, the ratification that is greatly anticipated on all sides must be preceded by an agreement on the burden-sharing between the various member states, the environment ministers argue.
All of the delegations took the floor during this exchange of views, which was steered by two documents: an analysis note of all of the results of COP 21, which was put together by the Presidency of the Council, and the European Commission communication of 2 March on the impacts of the Agreement on the European energy and climate policies and the next steps in its implementation by the EU (see EUROPE 11504).
However, only Germany, Austria, Portugal and Luxembourg explicitly called upon the EU to increase its attenuation objective for 2030, which the European Commission is not planning to do, to the great consternation of these delegations and environment and development NGOs such as WWF and Greenpeace, which now have the support of these member states.
Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, in the opposite corner, took unambiguous position against any increase in the EU's ambition for 2030.
The Presidency's note, however, stressed that if implemented, the 187 proposed contributions in place at the moment (INDC) would lead to a significant deviation from business as usual emissions by 2030, but would not yet put the world on a pathway to meet the agreed temperature goals of 2° or even 1.5°.
The ministers of a number of delegations (UK, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Denmark) made the same observation.
In the middle of the refugee crisis, the Greek minister was unable to resist the temptation of calling for a sense of solidarity from the EU. “We have seen this for the migrants: when solidarity needs to be put into practice, or when the measures come with a cost, we withdraw. I hope that this will not be the case for the Paris Agreement. If we, in Europe, are not capable of hosting a few thousand refugees, how can we be credible?”, asked Ioannis Tsironis.
Describing the debate as “very useful”, Sharon Dijksma, the environment minister of the Netherlands, who chaired the session, will write to the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, with the major conclusions of the debate, which are as follows:
- the Council supports the Dutch Presidency's reading of the Paris Agreement and welcomes the presentation of the Commission's communication as an important contribution to future negotiations;
- certain delegations would like to see more ambition;
- the Council upholds the common understanding of a legally binding multilateral agreement which will allow the continuation of transparent actions to promote a transition to a resilient, low-carbon economy;
- the ministers wish the EU to make use of the momentum from Paris and move to the application phase, particularly as regards the INDCs.
- all call for the EU to play a pioneering role, working hand in hand with the developing countries to help them to create the necessary capacity and there will be an exchange of experience to create fair conditions at global level for carbon prices and the ETS;
- the EU needs to make good on its INDC and the objective must be maintained of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% (not simply 40%, as stated in the Commission's communication, the German minister pointed out). A rapid implementation will be of decisive importance and will translate the EU's commitment to the Paris Agreement;
- the Dutch Presidency of the Council is absolutely determined to make progress in the revision of the ETS, but will not have the time to make progress on the proposal for the reduction of emissions in the non-ETS sector, which will be presented in June.
- certain countries stressed the contribution of forestry sector to reducing CO2 emissions (Slovenia was one of them) or, more broadly, the land use, land-use change and forestry sector (e.g. Malta).
In the view of the French minister and president of COP 21, Ségolène Royal, the success of the Presidency of COP is vital: “The success of Europe is also at stake”. And the success of the application of the Paris Agreement will depend, she added, on four conditions: 1) the signature and ratification of the agreement. Royal said that in France, the draft law for the ratification will be proposed to the Council of Ministers on 9 March with a view to concluding the procedure this summer. “We have to be in a position to submit our ratification instruments all at the same time in April or shortly thereafter”, she said, adding: “President François Hollande will invite his colleagues to do so at the European Council of 17 and 18 March”; 2) the ability to make effective decisions immediately in order to apply the agreement of the European Council of October 2014 on the Climate/Energy framework 2030. “The Commission is to present all of the other proposals on our efforts to reduce emissions as soon as possible, both in the non-carbon market sectors (construction, transport, agriculture) and with the Energy Union (directives on renewable energies, energy efficiency, energy performance of buildings). In all of these areas, Europe is going to have to put its money where its mouth is”, she said; 3) putting Europe at the cutting edge for carbon prices. On 22 April, the 'carbon price' panel will visit the World Bank (a proposal to create a carbon price corridor to fight carbon leaks is on the table); 4) reinforce the agenda of solutions by means of the 70 coalitions which came into being in Paris - the African coalition is her priority.
Miguel Arias Cañete justifies keeping 2030 objective unchanged. Explaining why the Commission is not planning to change the EU's 2030 objective, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Canete, argued that: - the EU's objective for 2030 “is the most ambitious” in the world; - a reduction of emissions by at least 40% corresponds to the 2°C target for the average increase of temperatures; - it is an “ambitious and binding” limit in all sectors, including the construction, agriculture and transport sectors; - it is a first stage in the roadmap towards a low-carbon European economy; - between now and 2020, the EU will prepare a strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
After the debate, he added: “Let us be quite clear about this: we want ambitious legislation for at least 40%, but we also need energy efficiency, renewables. I hope that everybody calling for ambition will accept our proposals”.
The Commissioner went on to stress that the Paris Agreement itself recognises the need for scientific work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in order to have a clear idea of the implications of the target of 1.5° on the policies practised. Once the IPCC report is in place in 2018, “we will have a clearer idea to reach that objective. There are some people who do not even want to implement the 2020 objectives!”, Cañete pointed out. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)