Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday 26 November, the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra, acknowledged that the negotiations to reach an agreement at COP29 in Baku (Azerbaijan) (see EUROPE 13531/13) had been “really difficult”.
“At several points, particularly on the last evening, we were on the verge of collapse. But it is important that we reached an agreement”, declared Mr Hoekstra, who conceded that the agreement was “far from ideal”.
With regard to the amount of climate action aid to be provided by developed countries, the COP parties agreed on an amount of $300 billion per year between now and 2035.
“That’s $1,000 billion less than we need to tackle climate change”, said Sigrid Friis (Renew Europe, Danish), while the developing countries, which are the recipients of this aid, and civil society were calling for up to $1,300 billion.
“With inflation between now and 2035, this is hardly an increase in our ambitions”, added Emma Wiesner (Renew Europe, Swedish).
However, some members of the COP29 delegation, such as Annalisa Corrado (S&D, Italian), welcomed Commissioner Hoekstra’s efforts. She stressed that the text’s call for a voluntary increase in ambition to 1,300 billion by 2035 “opens a small door” for discussions at COP30 in Belém (Brazil), which could “limit the damage”.
Several MEPs, on both the left and the right of the Chamber, regretted that certain industrialised countries, historically considered as developing countries, are still not included in the base of countries contributing to the financing of climate action.
“We were only partially successful: China and others did not want to make a binding commitment to contribute to financing climate protection, and that remains a problem”, explained Peter Liese (EPP, German).
Left-wing MEPs such as Nikо́las Farantoúris (The Left, Greek) also regretted that the achievements of COP28 in Dubai on a gradual phase-out of fossil fuels had not been taken into account at this COP.
It should be noted that a number of climate-sceptic comments made by MEPs from the Patriots for Europe group provoked exasperation and prompted a number of ‘blue card’ questions from the centre and centre-right.
Michael Bloss (Greens/EFA, German), for his part, said that Europe had not lived up to its role as leader on the climate front, pointing out that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had not travelled to Baku in the first days of the COP.
In his introduction, Commissioner Hoekstra nevertheless emphasised “one success” of this COP, “which has received less publicity”, namely the agreement paving the way for carbon pricing policies on a global scale (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement), which will make it possible “to build a bridge between the global North and the global South in terms of ambition”. This point was not raised by the MEPs. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)