The environment and climate ministers of seven EU member states – France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Germany and Luxemburg – issued a call in Paris on Wednesday 25 April to the EU and to all the countries of the world to prepare and implement a long-term climate strategy that is in line with the objectives of the Paris climate agreement.
The ministers, whose countries are already leading the way in this area, had been invited to meet in Paris by their French colleagues Nicolas Hulot and Brune Poirson as part of the 2050 Pathways Platform, a multiplayer forum for discussion and exchange launched at COP 22 in Marrakesh in November 2016.
For the EU to be at the forefront and to be a driver in international negotiations, the ministers have called for a European strategy that will increase the EU’s level of ambition (for the moment, its target is an emissions reduction of at least 40% by 2030, a deadline that does not figure in the Paris Agreement) and foster the transition to zero net emissions by 2050, with intermediate steps.
The seven ministers are putting pressure first and foremost on the European Commission, which was asked by the European Council of 22 March to bring forward a long-term strategy by the first quarter of 2019. No timetable for this has yet been set (see EUROPE 11988). The Commission has simply announced that it would present its vision for such a strategy “well before March 2019” (see EUROPE 12000).
France has revised its strategy and is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050. Sweden has set itself the target of zero net emissions by 2045, the Netherlands’ objective is for a 49% reduction in its emissions by 2030 and would like the EU to explore the options for altering its 2030 target to a 55% reduction. Finland, Germany and Luxembourg are already working on national measures to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Portugal is targeting the same political goal.
The ambition of the seven countries was hailed by WWF, which called on the environment ministers of all 28 member states to commit to a long-term European strategy and to begin working already on national strategies (see EUROPE 11997). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)