COP27: EU calls on all Parties to take concrete action to limit global warming to 1.5°C and comply with the Paris Agreement
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27, which begins this weekend in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the Commission will call on all parties to take urgent action to reduce reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement and the Glasgow Climate Agreement. Pact adopted last year at COP26.
On November 7 and 8, the President von der Leyen will represent the Commission at the Global Leaders’ Summit that officially opens COP27. From November 14 to 18, Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans will lead the EU negotiating team. Energy Commissioners Kadri Simson, at environment, maritime affairs and fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius , and Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski will also participate in the COP27 events.
The President von der Leyen will participate in a a round table of leaders on investing in the future of energy on the second day. She will deliver the joint EU statement in a plenary session with the President of the European Council. It will also participate in numerous events and sign bilateral declarations with several partners, with a particular focus on forest-climate partnerships and the clean energy transition.
At COP27, the Commission’s negotiating team will push for the implementation of existing commitments to move from ambitious words to concrete actions, including the adoption of a work programme on mitigation to to urgently intensify the ambition and the setting implementation of mitigation during this critical decade. With regard to the adaptation to climate change The EU is committed to making significant progress towards the Global Adaptation Goal (GAG). Nature-based solutions, as outlined in the Glasgow Climate Pact last year, play a crucial role in enabling climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation, which will also be a key topic at the COP15 on biodiversity later this year. On the issue of loss and damageThe EU will seek effective solutions to the diverse needs of vulnerable countries around the world facing the effects of climate change. The EU supports a official agenda item on prevention, reduction and treatment loss and damage to allow parties to discuss the best way forward to facilitate rapid access to funding and scale up support to vulnerable countries and communities. We will work with developed countries to ensure that they double adaptation funding by 2025 from 2019 levels, and that they increase their contributions to climate finance to reach the annual target of $100 billion, to which the EU contributed €23.04 billion in 2021 – a stable amount and by far the largest contribution.
Throughout the conference, the Commission will organize more than 125 side events at the EU Pavilion in Sharm el-Sheikh and online. These events will address a wide range of climate-related issues, such as biodiversity protection and nature restoration, energy security and green transition, sustainable finance, food and water security, research and innovation. Since biodiversity loss and climate change are mutually reinforcing, various events will also highlight the link between COP27 and the upcoming COP15 on biodiversity.
Background
As part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, 194 countries agreed to submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that represent their individual emission reduction targets. Collectively, these NDCs should contribute to keeping the average global temperature change below 2°C and as close to 1.5°C as possible by the end of the century. The 2022 reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that the world is expected to reach the 1.5°C level in the next two decades and that only the most drastic reductions in carbon emissions from now on would help prevent an environmental catastrophe. This level of temperature increase would have extremely harmful effects that would pose an existential challenge.
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 growing its economy by more than 60%. With the European Green Deal presented in December 2019, the EU has further raised its climate ambition by committing to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. This objective became legally binding with the adoption and entry into force of the European climate law in July 2021. The law also sets an interim goal of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. This 2030 target has been communicated to the UNFCCC in December 2020 as the EU’s NDC under the Paris Agreement. In 2021, the EU submitted a set of proposals to adapt its climate, energy, land use, transportation and tax policies to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. A first agreement on zero-emission cars and vans was reached on October 27. The EU will update its NDC, if necessary, as soon as possible after the adoption of all these proposals.
Climate finance is essential to help vulnerable communities protect themselves from the impacts of climate change and support sustainable economic growth. Developed countries have pledged to mobilize a total of $100 billion in international climate finance per year from 2020 to 2025 to assist the most vulnerable countries, and small island states in particular, in their mitigation and adaptation efforts. The EU is the largest donor with a steadily increasing contribution to about a quarter of the target. Other donor countries must now step up their efforts and fill the current gap.
