After a week of climate talks among experts, COP 22 in Marrakesh, the “COP that turns the promise of Paris into action”, will enter the ministerial phase on Monday 14 November, and there will be increasing numbers of events to try to capitalise on the initiatives launched in Paris at COP 21. The first meeting of the executive body of the parties to the Paris Agreement is scheduled for Tuesday 15 November.
With a new report in their pockets, showing that the EU had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22% between 1990 and 2015 – a greater reduction than its 2020 target of 20% that augurs well for the 2030 target (a reduction of at least 40%) – European Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete and President in office of the Council of the EU Laszlo Solymos will fly out to Marrakesh (see EUROPE 11661).
The Commission report to the Parliament and Council on “Implementing the Paris Agreement - Progress of the EU towards the at least -40% target”, published on 8 November, shows that, over the same 1990-2015 period, the EU economy grew by 50%. EU emissions also fell as a percentage of the global total. According to the most recent figures, they stood at 8.8% in 2012. The only damper is that the report shows that, after a 4% drop in emissions in the previous year when the winter was particularly mild, 2015 saw a slight rebound of 0.7%, though industrial emissions continued to fall.
“Once again we have shown that protecting the climate can go hand in hand with economic growth”, said Cañete, highlighting that new legislative proposals have been tabled to supplement arrangements and that others will follow before the end of the year on energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy.
Nonetheless, there are increasing calls for the EU, and all the other parties, to raise the level of ambition, particularly after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election set the cat among the pigeons (see EUROPE 11664).
These calls come, for instance, from the European Parliament, which has long urged the EU to set itself a target of at least 40% savings through energy efficiency and 40% of its total energy use from renewable sources by 2030.
The major target is limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees says the NGO Climate Action Tracker, whose new assessment published on Thursday 10 November shows that little has been done since the Paris Agreement and that the world is on course for global warming of between 2.8 and 3.1 degrees Celsius.
Oceans Action Day on Saturday. European Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella will present the communication that the Commission has just adopted on oceans governance (see other article) on the World Oceans Action Day on Saturday. A number of the 50 actions proposed seek to reduce the pressure from human activity and the impact of climate change on the oceans, and also to tackle pollution from plastics, from, for example, ships’ waste. A news strategy for the management of plastics will be proposed in 2017, the commissioner announced on Thursday.
After the cities, municipalities and regions day in Marrakesh on Thursday 10 November, the Committee of the Regions intends to keep up the pressure next week to show that action at local level will be decisive if we are to remain on the 2 degrees Celsius track and be able to aim for 1.5 degrees. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)