With just over a month to go before the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union submitted a new version of the draft conclusions setting out the EU Council’s position to the Member States on Friday 16 September.
The document reaffirms the commitment of the EU and its Member States to the ‘Glasgow Climate Pact’, the text adopted at the end of COP26 in Glasgow (see EUROPE 12832/14), which calls on signatory countries to accelerate the green transition with a view to phasing out coal-fired power generation and “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies.
It also calls on all parties to the COP, in particular major emitters, to increase their ambition and strengthen climate action, including through the use of carbon pricing, and invites them to make commitments to end all new direct public support for fossil fuels by the end of 2022.
On climate finance, the Czech paper calls for a renewed commitment by the EU to the collective developed country target of mobilising $100 billion per year for climate finance in the least developed and most vulnerable countries as soon as possible and up to 2025.
Given the delay on this target (see EUROPE 12822/9), the text indicates that it will not be reached until 2023.
The document also includes a paragraph stating that the EU Council “condemns in the strongest terms the war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine”, which “risks delaying much-needed action on climate change” and leads to “immediate damage to nature and long-term environmental degradation”.
COP27 will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) from 6 to 18 November.
See the Presidency document: https://aeur.eu/f/35i (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)