After a difficult week of negotiations, strong and united European efforts helped secure an agreement after strenuous efforts to keep the goals of the Paris Agreement alive.
During the conference of United States for climate change (COP27), which concluded on Sunday morning in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the European Commission showed ambition and flexibility so that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees remains achievable. After a difficult week of negotiations, strong and united European efforts helped secure an agreement after strenuous efforts to keep the goals of the Paris Agreement alive. The EU’s outreach efforts have also helped usher in balanced new funding arrangements, with an expanded donor base, to help vulnerable communities cope with the loss and damage caused by climate change.
In terms of climate change mitigation, the parties agreed that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C requires rapid, deep and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, reducing them by 43% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels. They also recognized that this calls for accelerating action in this critical decade and reiterated the Glasgow Climate Accord’s call for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to be updated as needed to align with the of the Paris climate agreement by the end of 2023. They also confirmed that the Glasgow climate pact will guide a new work program for climate change mitigation to encourage parties to align their goals and actions with goal of net zero emissions.
Regarding losses and damages, the parties decided to establish new financing arrangements to provide assistance to developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. These arrangements include a new fund with a focus on dealing with loss and damage, to be established by a transitional committee, which will also consider expanding funding sources.
The COP of the implementation
The final results of COP27 today complement the numerous bilateral and multilateral agreements secured by the Commission over the past two weeks. President von der Leyen attended the leaders’ summit at the start of COP27 and signed partnerships with Kazakhstan on raw materials, batteries and renewable hydrogen and with Namibia on sustainable raw materials and renewable hydrogen , while jointly with Egyptian President El-Sisi announced a strategic partnership for renewable hydrogen, which was signed by Executive Vice President Mr. Timmermans and Commissioner Ms. Kadri Simson. President von der Leyen also launched forestry and climate partnerships with Congo, Guyana, Mongolia, Zambia and Uganda. The importance of nature to the interconnected climate and biodiversity crises will also be at the center of the upcoming COP15 on biodiversity, which will be held in Montreal, Canada in December.
Speaking at an event to take stock of the global methane pledge launched by the EU and the US a year ago, Mr Timmermans welcomed the growing support for the initiative, which is now backed by more than 150 countries. Executive Vice President Mr. Timmermans also announced a new “Team Europe” initiative to provide over €1 billion in financial assistance to Africa to adapt to climate change. During COP27, the EU also welcomed and endorsed South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, while signing a new Just Energy Transition Partnership with Indonesia at the G20 in Bali.
President Ursula von der Leyen said on the outcome of COP27: “COP27 confirmed that we will not back down on the Paris Agreement; furthermore, the summit is an important step towards climate justice. However, the science is clear that much more is needed to keep the planet sustainable. It is equally clear that the EU played a key role in Sharm el-Sheikh and will not back down on its domestic and international climate action. I thank Executive Vice President Timmermans and our negotiating team for their tireless work to untangle difficult talks and avoid the collapse of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, which will remain critical. Our negotiating team has been able to build trust with our partners around the world by insisting on climate change mitigation and demonstrating flexibility on financing for the loss and damage caused by climate change.”
Record
Throughout the conference, the Commission organized more than 125 side events, both at the EU pavilion in Sharm el-Sheikh and online, on issues such as biodiversity protection and nature restoration, energy security and green transition, sustainable finance, food and water security, and research and innovation. In the framework of these events, an enthusiastic dialogue took place between the executive vice-president Mr. Timmermans and representatives of youth from all over the world.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, 194 countries agreed to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which represent their individual emission reduction targets. Overall, the ETS are expected to help keep the global average temperature change below 2 °C and as close as possible to 1.5 °C by the end of the century. The 2022 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports warn that the planet is expected to reach 1.5 °C within the next two decades and that only with the most drastic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions possible of carbon an environmental disaster can be avoided. This level of warming would have extremely harmful effects, constituting an existential threat.
The European Union is a world leader in climate action, having already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than a quarter since 1990, while its economy grew by more than 60%. With the European Green Deal, presented in December 2019, the EU further increased its climate ambition, committing to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This goal became legally binding with the adoption and entry into force of the European legislation on climate, in July 2021. The climate legislation also sets an interim target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. This 2030 target was announced in UNFCCC in December 2020 as the EU’s EPA under the Paris Agreement. The European Commission presented a set of proposals in 2021 to make its climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies fit to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. The EU will update its ECS accordingly as soon as possible after all these proposals have been adopted.
Climate finance is vital to support vulnerable communities to protect themselves from the impacts of climate change and support sustainable economic growth. Developed countries have pledged to mobilize a total of US$100 billion in international climate finance each year from 2020 to 2025 to help the most vulnerable countries and especially small island states in their mitigation and adaptation efforts. The EU is the biggest donor, contributing around a quarter of the target.
George Fellidis
RES-EMP
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