A call for equity, for a collective start, for the moral imperative to ensure a just transition to an economic model adapted for all, without leaving the countries most vulnerable to climate change to the side of the road, multiplied on Monday 3 December at the opening of the high-level segment of COP 24 in Katowice.
The stated desire was great to regain the momentum of the COP 21, in a climate of blunt enthusiasm and maximum alert.
This COP 24 will be crucial for the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, as the implementing rules will have to be finalised and the political phase of the Talanoa dialogue will be concluded. All of them emphasised this.
Leaders of several Member States - Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain - have all stressed the need to do more to achieve the Paris Agreement's 1.5 °C target and to increase commitments by 2020. But it was Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte who went the furthest by committing to raise his country's 2030 target to a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and to encourage all other EU Member States to aim for the same level of ambition.
It is a strong response to Namibia's Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa Amadhila's call for "all developed countries to increase their NDC to close the gap" between the commitments on the table and the efforts required and "to replenish the Green Climate Fund". His country needs $300 billion by 2020 to adapt, according to the IPCC report.
The European Commission considers that the EU has already done a lot by translating its 2020 target into binding legislation and that the first steps it has just taken by unveiling its vision for a 2050 strategy put the EU in a good position.
"I am proud the European Union is the first major economy that has taken a bold step towards climate neutrality by mid-century", said EU Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič. He recalled that, since 1990, the EU has reduced its emissions by 22%, exceeding its target of 20% by 2020. "By the end of the next decade, the reduction will reach at least 45%", he said.
The day before, COP President Michał Kurtyka called on all countries to make the agreement fully operational.
The negotiations will enter their political phase next week. The European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete, and the Austrian Minister, Elisabeth Köstinger, will be the chief negotiators on behalf of the EU.
"The EU must now revise upwards its climate objectives by 2030 and review all its sectoral policies with a view to a low-carbon, job-creating economy”, French MEP Yannick Jadot (Greens/EFA), member of the European Parliament delegation in Katowice, argued in a statement. He reiterated the position defended by the leader of the European Green Party's list, Bas Eickhout (Netherlands). Before flying to Katowice, he pointed out that the EU's target (a reduction of at least 40% of its emissions compared to 1990 by 2030) was based on the conclusions of the European Council in October 2014 - well before COP 21. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)