At the opening of the G20 summit in Osaka on Friday 28 June, the EU was fully mobilised to try to prevent this meeting of the leaders of the world's largest economies from falling short of expectations when it came full of climate ambition in a multilateral framework.
Indeed, the climate was shaping up to be one of the most burning issues, given Donald Trump's attempts to convince other countries - Australia, Brazil, Turkey and Saudi Arabia - to follow in the footsteps of the United States in moving out of the Paris Agreement.
"The fight against climate change requires a concerted and detailed response within multilateral rules, and the EU will continue to lead the way, as we did in Paris in 2015. We have ambitious 2030 goals for renewables and energy efficiency", said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at a press conference. He conceded that "we must focus on implementing" them.
"But climate change will not stop in 2030. And there is a strong and significant majority of EU countries that support our climate neutral strategy for 2050. I believe it is the way forward – it is good for the planet and for business."
24 Member States did indeed declare themselves in favour of achieving this objective by 2050 for the EU at the last European Council.
When asked if the EU would not accept a fully watered-down final declaration - President Macron makes it a red line - Mr Juncker replied: "We need a strong commitment. We agreed on a language last year in Buenos Aires. And I could not accept that what was said in Buenos Aires should be diluted".
At the least, maintaining the achievements of the previous G20 (Hamburg in 2017 and Buenos Aires in 2018) is the red line, confirmed on Friday morning at a coordination meeting between European leaders (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom), Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, as well as Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
In Buenos Aires, nineteen leaders reaffirmed their commitment to fully implement the Paris Agreement, calling it "irreversible", while noting that the United States reiterated its withdrawal. (see EUROPE 12151/17)
While the first three versions of the Osaka draft final declaration did not contain "anything credible until Tuesday", the latest version would contain "at least the Buenos Aires text and some forward-looking elements on NDCs", but nothing has yet been settled, according to a European source. Negotiations on this point threatened to overshadow other topics (see other news).
The EU's objective in Osaka is to reaffirm its "commitment to the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement" and to send a "strong message ahead of the United Nations Climate Summit of September 2019 and the Climate Conference (COP25) in December 2019", wrote Donald Tusk and Mr Juncker ahead of the G20.
From Brussels, where the Third International Ministerial Conference on Climate Action (see EUROPE 12284/26) was held on Friday, the Commissioner for Climate and Energy Action, Miguel Arias Cañete, reaffirmed that "the EU, Canada and China will continue to encourage global leadership and ambition in the implementation of climate action."
It is likely that the outcome of the Osaka G20 will not meet the expectations of NGOs. Disappointed by the Bonn negotiations (7-27 June), they called on the G20 for a climate ambition compatible with the average global warming target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"It was positive to see the EU making efforts to defend science and environmental integrity at the Bonn climate talks. However, the EU's failure to agree on reaching net zero emissions by 2050 was clearly a big disappointment for many vulnerable countries who are relying on the EU to show leadership", Climate Action Network Europe said on 27 June. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)