A few weeks before the 26th UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP26), the Ministers of Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Union Member States adopted on Tuesday 5 October EU Council conclusions in which they call on other developed countries to increase their contribution to the objective of collectively mobilising US$100 billion per year until 2025 to help developing countries cope with climate change.
This is one of the major issues at stake at COP26, which will be held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November, while the European Commission recently announced an increase in the EU’s contribution to climate finance to €4 billion by 2027 (see EUROPE 12791/2).
In view of this international event, Member States ask the Commission to provide an overview of international climate finance from the EU (including the European Investment Bank) and its Member States for 2020 for approval by the Council of the EU before COP26.
While the Member States thus emphasise the important role of public funding, the conclusions also stress the need “to significantly enhance the mobilisation of private finance to help implement the Paris Agreement”.
Public policies, including public finance, as well as sectoral roadmaps can play an important leverage role, the EU Council believes.
The conclusions also call on OECD members to follow through on the explicit commitment made by the June G7 Summit (see EUROPE 12740/13) to end all new direct public support for international thermal coal-fired power generation by the end of 2021.
“Carbon pricing and phasing out environmentally harmful fossil fuel subsidies are key components of an enabling environment to shift financial flows towards climate-neutral and sustainable investments”, the adopted text states.
See the conclusions: https://bit.ly/3BgJ0fw (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)