“Now the time has come for global action”. At the Major Economies Forum on Climate and Energy (MEF), a virtual meeting hosted by the White House on Thursday 20 April to coordinate the efforts of the world’s most industrialised countries to combat climate change, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced her intention to launch a new initiative towards “global targets for energy efficiency, and renewable energy”. This would be based on international collaboration.
Ms von der Leyen affirmed the EU’s support for one of the goals set by US President Joe Biden ahead of the meeting: to make the energy sector net zero by 2040.
The Commission President also recalled the EU’s achievements in the field of renewable energy. “We have just raised our 2030 target from 32% to over 42%”, she said. She also highlighted the increase in the European energy efficiency target, one of the “key pillars in the global energy transition”, according to the G7 Ministers, to whom she referred.
In view of this initiative, Ms von der Leyen proposed to work on the development of these targets before COP28 with organisations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA). This would complement other targets: “the phase-out of fossil fuels” and “ambitious goals for zero-emission vehicles and ships”.
Furthermore, Ursula von der Leyen explained how the EU was working against deforestation as well as in compliance with the Global Methane Pledge and carbon management, three other objectives set by the US President in the framework of this Major Economies Forum on Climate and Energy, the fourth since the beginning of his mandate in 2021.
Read Ms von der Leyen’s speech: https://aeur.eu/f/6he (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)