The heads of state or government of the Twenty-Eight discussed the climate dossier and once again reiterated loud and clear their commitment and that of the EU collectively to apply the Paris Climate Agreement, rapidly and fully. They previously did so on 21 June, in reaction to the announced withdrawal of the Trump Administration from this universal agreement (see EUROPE 11813).
Their conclusions contain a paragraph on this subject, which was added on Wednesday 13 December. This was by request of France, following its 'One Planet Summit' initiative, held in Paris to mark the second anniversary of this universal agreement, which was concluded on 12 December 2015. Its request was granted (see EUROPE 11925).
The European Council welcomes the results of the 'One Planet Summit', which aimed to scale up public and private funding in favour of climate action, just three weeks after COP 23 was held in Bonn (see EUROPE 11924).
The leaders' eyes are now all turned to COP 24 (Katowice, Poland, December 2018), as it is here that the rules and procedures to implement the Paris Agreement will be finalised and adopted (see EUROPE 11908). The conclusions refer to this.
The European Council reaffirms the commitment of the EU and its member states to take a leading role in the fight against climate change, for instance by adopting the relevant legislation of the EU.
This includes: the 'clean energy' package (see EUROPE 11921, 11914), and the legislation concerning the long-term reform of the emissions quotas trading system (ETS) of the EU (see EUROPE 11914), sharing the effort between the member states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in areas not covered by the ETS and the draft 'LULUCF' regulation on emissions/absorptions from agriculture and forestry. The provisional inter-institutional agreement on this draft regulation, which was reached on the very morning of the European Council, bodes well (see other article). On sharing the effort outside the ETS, on the other hand, the inter-institutional negotiations will continue in 2018. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)