In a joint declaration on climate change, the European Union and group of 79 ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) countries that are linked to the EU by the Cotonou Agreement reiterated their commitment, on Friday 1 June, to the Paris Agreement and their joint resolve to cooperate in order to contribute together (through the weight of 107 countries) to the success of COP24 in Katowice, Poland on 3-14 December, where the Paris Rulebook of detailed rules for applying this universal agreement is due to be finalised.
This is the main result of the meeting of the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers held in Lomé (see EUROPE 12031).
This "joint declaration represents the tangible expression of our shared commitment to address critical issues", Bulgaria's Foreign Affairs Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, who co-chaired this ministerial meeting, stated.
The EU and ACP call on all parties to speed up the pace of work in order to finalise COP24.
The partners note with concern that many ACP countries are suffering extreme climate phenomena and that the national determined contributions (NDCs) on the table are not enough to reach the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.
The EU and ACP also note that the parties to this universal agreement are asked to prepare long term strategies by 2020. In this perspective, they look forward to the further evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and in particular its special report on average global warming of 1.5 °C.
The EU and its ACP partners hail the launch of the Talanoa dialogue that aims to take stock of the collective efforts to raise the ambitions of the parties to Paris Agreement.
They state that the Paris Rulebook should be robust and comprehensive, and preserve the integrity of the Paris Agreement, cover all aspects of mitigation (the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation, and the means of implementation in a balanced manner. The Rulebook should be applicable to all parties and provide a common transparency framework for tracking progress, with built-in flexibility to take into account the different capacities of the countries, the joint declaration states.
The EU and ACP also state that implementation of the Paris Agreement should reflect equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances.
Cooperation at UN on sustainable development and migration too. As well as this cooperation on the climate front, which has been ongoing since COP21 and the launch of the 'coalition of most ambitious countries', the two parties agreed to step up their cooperation to strengthen their voice in international fora – be this at the next UN high level political forum on sustainable development in July, or the future United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration to be adopted at the UN intergovernmental conference in September (see EUROPE 12005, 11986).
"The ACP-EU Council gave a mandate to our respective secretariats to organise the maximum consultation and joint events for these three meetings", Zaharieva told press, also mentioning COP24. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)