Following the New York Climate Summit, European Environment ministers, meeting on Friday 4 October in Luxembourg, expressed deep concern at the increasingly negative impacts of climate change and acknowledged the urgent calls for action and ambition from civil society and young people.
The conclusions they adopted for the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Santiago, Chile, 2-13 December) highlight the importance of strengthening global climate action and set out the EU’s priorities and objectives for this international meeting.
“We want to send a strong and balanced message to the rest of the world about our climate actions and climate ambitions so that COP25 is a success and leads to concrete results”, said Finnish Minister for Environment and Climate Krista Mikkonen, who chaired the session.
The wording of a paragraph on how the EU will formulate its contribution (NDC) to be transmitted to the UN in 2020 mobilised ministers throughout the day.
“If we are all dissatisfied, it is a sign that this is a good compromise”, said Mrs Mikkonen when a consensus was finally reached.
Several compromise attempts were necessary to finally decide that the EU will update its 2030 target (currently a reduction in emissions of at least 40% compared to 1990) and communicate it to the UNFCCC in 2020.
A hard battle had taken place, a battle that was lost by the most ambitious countries (Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), who absolutely wanted the conclusions to speak of enhancing the target. Ten countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania and Croatia) were uncompromising.
They wanted to strictly adhere to the provisions of the Paris Agreement and to the European Council conclusions of 20 June without prejudging the outcome of the ongoing discussions about how to engage on climate neutrality
Hungary stressed that the EU has the most ambitious framework for 2030 and that updating the NDCs will be discussed at COP 26. For the Czech Republic, raising the 2030 target would require an EU Council decision that has never been taken, and “it is not even known if 40% will be achieved, since Member States are in the process of finalising their national plans”.
The text mentions the importance of basing global efforts on science and finally mentions the IPCC report on the target of restricting global warming to 1.5°. It wasn't easy. France and Sweden (supported by Belgium) also wanted to include a reference to a common five-year timetable for the implementation of the NDCs. This was not accepted.
With regard to Article 6.2 on credit transfers, the EU Council stresses the need for robust rules. Several delegations expressed strong opposition to the transfer of unused Kyoto Protocol credits for use after 2020.
“I don't see why we should have joint time horizons. Future discussions should not be prejudged. The NDCs are compatible with the five-year cycles of the Paris Agreement”, said Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete during the debate. On the other hand, he agreed with France and the Netherlands on Article 6. “NDCs must prohibit any use of the Kyoto Protocol's surplus credits. We need to be clear with Australia”, he said.
The EU Council called on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to rapidly implement its initial strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships, which was adopted in 2018. Belgium had wanted to refer to short-term measures to reduce emissions by 2023, to the great displeasure of Greece and Malta. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)