Meeting in Strasbourg for the European Parliament’s plenary session, MEPs expressed divergent views on the outcome of the 26th session of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP26), held in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November, during a debate attended by the European Commission’s executive vice-president for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, on Wednesday 24 November.
Speaking on behalf of the EPP group, Peter Liese (Germany) said that COP26 was generally positive. Among the successes, he mentioned South Africa’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. He called on the EU to work even more with African countries, and more widely with all third countries.
However, he deplored China’s lack of ambition. In his view, this demonstrates the need for an EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), as proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12762/5).
For S&D Group President Iratxe García Pérez, the international community seems to have “rediscovered the path of responsibility and solidarity”.
She particularly welcomed the finalisation of the rules governing the Paris Agreement (see EUROPE 12832/14) and congratulated Frans Timmermans for having done “a great job of diplomacy”, while stressing the need to ensure a “just” transition.
For his part, Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, France), who chaired Parliament’s delegation to the COP, praised the EU’s action at the UN conference.
Nevertheless, he called for more ambition at EU level and invited all political groups in the Parliament to take an initiative to rework the EU’s climate commitment for 2030 (see EUROPE 12750/27) so that it is in line with the objective of limiting average global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Greens/EFA co-president Philippe Lamberts (Belgium) called for action.
“Our house is burning ever brighter, we watch it burn and we do nothing, or at most we promise to act tomorrow”, he said, referring to a famous phrase by former French President Jacques Chirac at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
He also criticised the previous day’s approval of the revision of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP - see EUROPE 12838/11) and urged his colleagues to resist the lobbying of rentiers “who are ready to trash the planet”.
On behalf of the ECR group, Anna Zalewska called for a review of the European Commission’s proposed climate legislation package (‘Fit for 55 package’), including the proposal for a CBAM, which she said did not receive the support of the countries present at the COP.
However, she was pleased to see progress in addressing the role of CO2 capture and storage technologies. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)