On Monday 11 October, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) adopted a series of compromise amendments to a draft resolution on the 26th United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP26), to be held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November.
Among other things, the draft resolution urges the parties to the Paris Agreement to resolve the outstanding elements of the agreement, in order to “focus the coming five years in the further development and the strengthening of its implementations and operationalization”.
The text mentions in particular transparency, Article 6 of the agreement which establishes the rules for an international carbon market and the common timetable for ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs) - documents setting out the efforts made by each party to the Paris Agreement to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to the consequences of climate change.
On this last point, MEPs support a common timetable of five years.
They also call for increased efforts on climate finance and for an international roadmap that defines each developed country’s fair share of the collective commitment to mobilise $100 billion a year until 2025 to help developing countries tackle climate change, as well as mechanisms to ensure that pledges are translated into action.
On the post-2025 climate finance target, MEPs support opening negotiations on a new target, exploring “a goal matrix with separate sub-goals”, including the share of subsidies.
They further call on all EU Member States to “implement concrete policies, timelines and measures to phase out all direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 at the very latest”, while inviting all other parties to the Paris Agreement to take similar action.
It should be noted that this amendment was not supported by the EPP, ID and ECR groups in the Parliament.
Concerned about the growing global interest in Arctic fossil fuel reserves, MEPs urge the EU and its Member States to call for a global moratorium on offshore oil exploration in the area.
The vote in the ENVI Committee on the amended report will take place on 12 October.
For its part, the Council of the EU adopted conclusions for COP26 on 6 October (see EUROPE 12806/5).
See the compromise amendments: https://bit.ly/3AqA4CY (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)