In order to protect the climate, MEPs on the European Parliament’s environment committee have high ambitions when it comes to the efforts to be made by the EU and all countries in the rest of the world. Not content with recommending to the European Parliament that it endorses ratification of the Paris agreement and urging the EU to ratify it swiftly (see EUROPE 11619), they also call for a raising of the EU’s targets for 2030.
And for good reason – the national contribution offerings currently on the table would not even allow the global community to come anywhere close to the objective of 2 degrees Celsius, explains a draft resolution adopted by the MEPs by a huge majority (48 to 1 with 2 abstentions) ahead of the COP 22 summit in Marrakesh on 7-18 November (see EUROPE 11618).
The MEPs feel that raising ambitions is urgently required and crucially important in both the medium and the long-term. They call on the European Commission to prepare a strategy that would enable the EU to move in the direction of achieving zero emissions in 2050 at the lowest cost.
Although aviation and international shipping were excluded from the Paris Agreement, the MEPs say the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) will be setting greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for themselves later this year "without suitable objectives" in order to take part in the global fight against climate change (see other article on the ICAO in this issue of EUROPE). In terms of financing, the MEPs call for efforts to ensure the promised $100 billion a year by 2020 is forthcoming to support developing countries.
Among possible additional sources of financing, they cite a tax on financial transactions, some of the income from auctioning carbon quotas in ETS and income generated by EU and international measures to reduce emissions in aviation and shipping. The resolution calls for the recognition of the problem of ‘climate refugees,’ but does not ask for them to be granted special status (an idea that the EPP Group cannot go along with).
Using some amendments tabled by British MEPs with an eye to post-Brexit, the resolution urges the EU to respect commitments taken under the Paris Agreement irrespective of changes in the status of EU member states and to do its utmost to ensure that a member state which is no longer a member can still take part in the EU’s carbon market. The draft resolution will be put to the vote at the European Parliament in the October plenary.
It follows a question with a request for an oral response on measures the European Commission is planning to enable the COP 22 to: - make progress on key elements of the Paris Agreement;- influence the 2018 facilitation dialogue in terms of levels of ambition, which will provide a good opportunity to fill the persistent gap between current contributions and the required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions;- and boost mobilisation of funding to achieve the common objective of $100 billion a year by 2020. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)