The EU is determined to contribute to raising global climate ambitions and will use all the instruments at its disposal to tackle the climate challenge, but there is an urgent need for efforts beyond the EU to be scaled up by all other parties, European foreign ministers stressed in an exchange of views on Monday 20 January.
In order to convince all parties to the Paris Agreement to respect this international commitment, the EU itself will demonstrate high ambition in all relevant sectors and it is on this basis that it will intensify its climate diplomacy, as requested by the European Council in December.
In its conclusions, the Council of the EU recalls that climate change is an existential threat to humanity and biodiversity in all countries and regions and requires an urgent collective response.
“EU leadership by example is crucial to raising collective global ambition”, it stressed. It said that “the EU is showing leadership and assuming its responsibilities”. It cites in particular the objective of climate neutrality by 2050, endorsed by European leaders on 12 December.
The EU Council expresses its concern about the alarming reports on the impact of climate change, in particular on the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the North Sea.
It believes that the EU must press non-Member States – led by the G20 countries – to scale up their efforts and assures that it will strengthen its support to the parties in reviewing and implementing their targets (in the framework of the NDC partnership) and in developing ambitious long-term strategies before COP26 (Glasgow) to generate the highest possible ambition.
The EU Council invites the High Representative, the Commission and the Member States to work jointly and urgently to develop a strategic approach to climate diplomacy by June 2020 that identifies concrete and operational ways forward. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)