EU to push for ambition in global climate talks but plan lacks detail

The EU will push to keep “within reach” the objective of limiting global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, environment ministers have agreed just weeks before world leaders are due to gather in the Azeri capital for the COP29 climate summit.

Environmental activists and NGOs warned that the lofty ambitions were not sufficiently backed up with clear deadlines paving the way to phase out fossil fuels, or clear pledges for the necessary funding for alternative sources of energy.

Climate change is an “existential threat to humanity, ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as to peace and security which spares no country, territory or region” they agreed in conclusions to an EU Council summit that finished late on Monday in Luxembourg.

The 1.5-degree limit is an aspirational goal in the landmark Paris Agreement of 2015, in which almost 200 governments agreed concretely not to surpass 2°C. The already intensely felt changes to the climate have focused attention on the more ambitious target – especially in Europe, where temperatures are rising at double the global average.

Ministers expressed “deep concern about the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events across the globe, including heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods” and stressed the “extreme urgency of strengthening the global response to the climate emergency in this critical decade”.

At the same time, they looked to emphasise that climate action is not incompatible with growth. “While preserving economic competitiveness and promoting social inclusiveness by investing in education, science, innovation and green jobs and skills, all societies can benefit from a just and equitable green transition to a new green economic model,” they agreed.

On the way into the summit, Finland’s environment minister Kai Mykkanen said it was important the EU should send a “clear signal” that it is phasing out fossil fuels and is ready to adopt a goal of 90% emissions reduction by 2040. “In the COP29 at Baku we need to find also ways to broaden the contributor base for climate financing,” Mykkanen said.

While environment ministers welcomed the UAE Consensus struck at last year’s COP in Dubai – and the need for “a swift, just and equitable global transition to climate neutral economies underpinned by deep, rapid and sustained emissions cuts in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C” – they stopped short of putting any firm dates on the end of the fossil fuel era that it implies.

Parties to the Paris Agreement are due to submit updated pledges of their part in the global climate action effort by February, but climate campaigners are hoping that many governments will use the COP29 in Baku to unveil ambitious new pledges.

“The EU’s next Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) must include clear phase-out dates: Coal by 2030, gas by 2035, and oil by 2040 at the latest and a clear signal in this direction is necessary in Baku,” said Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe director Chiara Martinelli.

The NGO umbrella group expressed concern over “key gaps” that remain in the run-up to the summit, notably in scaling up financing for the energy transition and adapting to the effects of climate change that are already being felt.

“The EU's rhetoric on phasing out fossil fuels is welcome, but empty without matching financial support for developing countries,” Martinelli said. “The excessive profits from fossil fuels must be redirected to support climate action in the countries that need it most.”

EU finance ministers last week signalled they would continue to pay their share of the annual $100bn intended to help developing countries cope with climate change, and for the EU to push for a broader base of contributors, including countries like China that have seen dramatic economic development since the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed in 1992.

The willingness of the so-called Brics countries and others to pay for clearing up the mess some say was caused by an earlier wave of industrialisation, and to an extent even colonialism, will be a key test for EU negotiators in the talks that begin on 11 November, but is by no means the only uncertainly ahead of COP29.

Between now and then, US citizens will go to the polls and possibly re-elect a president in Donald Trump who pulled out of the Paris Agreement when last in office and has signalled he would do so again – thereby leaving the 194 other states who have ratified the deal to re-join outsider nations Iran, Libya and Yemen.

The Baku climate summit comes within weeks of parallel UN biodiversity talks due to open in Cali, Colombia, on 21 October, and a meeting in December of parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The EU Council statement recognises the “mutually reinforcing triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution as well as desertification, land, soil and ocean degradation and water scarcity, floods, drought and deforestation which pose a global threat to sustainable development”.