Ahead of COP30, to be held from 10 to 21 November in Belém (Brazil), the Polish Presidency of the EU Council has sent a note to Member States to prepare for an exchange of views at the Environment Council on 17 June.
These discussions will focus on the nationally determined contribution (NDC) that the European Union must submit to the United Nations by 30 September.
Under the Paris Agreement, each contracting party must update its climate commitments every five years. The next cycle is expected to cover the period up to 2035, with clear targets, aligned with the 1.5°C warming limit.
The aim will be to specify the EU’s climate trajectory for 2035, between the legally binding target of a reduction of at least 55% in net emissions by 2030 (compared with 1990) and the target of carbon neutrality set for 2050.
The note mentions several possible ways of determining the climate target to be included in the future contribution.
Firstly, building on the expected revision of the European Climate Law, which is currently being prepared.
It is also possible to start from the trajectory already set by the EU’s binding commitments. A third option would be to formulate an indicative range, based on existing targets and officially reported national projections. The method of calculation, the value of the target and the precise deadline (2035 or 2040) have yet to be clarified at political level.
The working party on climate began preparing the draft NDC in March. Three meetings enabled progress to be made on the current state of policies in place and advances on adaptation, resilience and sustainable finance. The target figure, calculation method and timetable have yet to be defined.
Ministers are therefore invited to clarify their political priorities, to consider offers to negotiate with international partners and to agree on a collective ambition compatible with the conclusions of the first ‘Global Stocktake’ adopted in Dubai at COP28.
A common position must emerge before the September deadline, in order to ensure the European Union’s leadership in international climate negotiations.
On the Commission side, a first series of high-level dialogues on the energy transition, organised jointly by the COP30 Presidency and the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the run-up to the COP, took place on Wednesday 11 June.
The Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, welcomed the President-designate of COP30, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, and the Executive Director of the IEA, Fatih Birol.
The European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen, represented Europe at a round-table discussion with other global energy and climate decision-makers on the eve of the 10th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency, organised jointly by the Commission and the IEA in Brussels, on 12 and 13 June.
This event will provide an opportunity to revisit the target of doubling the rate of improvement in global energy efficiency by 2030, agreed at COP28 in Dubai in 2023.
Read the preparatory note: https://aeur.eu/f/h9o (Original version in French by Pauline Denys and Nithya Paquiry)