Eight months ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2025 (COP30) in Belém (Brazil), the 16th Petersberg Climate Dialogue was held on Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 March in Berlin. The meeting, co-chaired by German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock and the COP30 president-designate, Brazilian diplomat André Corrêa do Lagoa, brought together ministers from forty countries to discuss the global climate agenda’s priorities. This was an opportunity for European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth Wopke Hoekstra to clarify the European Union’s path in the face of global warming that is now above +1.5°C on average per year, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The European commissioner stated that the EU will submit a new nationally determined contribution (NDC) before COP30.
“The European Union will shortly be publishing its new contribution. We know we’re behind schedule, but we’ll do it before Belém”, he said at the press conference on 26 March. He also stressed that this NDC must translate the objective of climate neutrality into a quantified trajectory, in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
The other major issue was financial, and the 16th Petersberg Climate Dialogue provided an opportunity to assess the next steps in the “Baku to Belém roadmap”, in particular the joint report being prepared by Brazil and Azerbaijan aimed at mobilising US$1,300 billion by 2035, as decided at COP29 last November (see EUROPE 13531/13).
André Corrêa do Lago pointed out that this report, scheduled for COP30, “will not be subject to negotiation, but will constitute a fundamental political basis for strengthening the consensus on climate financing”.
Wopke Hoekstra pointed out that the success of the Belém conference on climate change will depend on the ability to “ensure that the promises made at previous COPs are transformed into real, measurable outcomes” and to “maintain an ambitious coalition bringing together the EU, the G7 countries, the emerging economies and the vulnerable island states”.
In his view, this alliance was decisive at COP28 and will need to be consolidated if further progress is to be made in Belém.
Also at the press conference on 26 March, Annalena Baerbock stressed that the climate crisis “threatens our security and fuels conflicts over water, land and migration”. And to clarify: “Climate action is also tough security policy. Every centigrade less of global warming makes our world more secure”.
The initial findings of a joint report by the OECD and the UNDP on the economic consequences of ambitious climate policies were also presented at the meeting.
The report shows that, compared with the status quo, NDCs aligned with the 1.5°C objective would lead to “more growth, better public health, greater energy security and a reduction in poverty”, according to a press release dated 25 March from the German Federal Foreign Office.
The European Union is in favour of complementary governance mechanisms, provided that they strengthen the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC, without creating competing structures.
“I would be very hesitant to throw away any part of our current infrastructure, even though it is imperfect”, insisted Wopke Hoekstra, also encouraging us to “open up new, unorthodox avenues of cooperation and funding”. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)