UN climate talks
EU must regain leadership role and make Paris climate summit a success
The COP21 UN climate summit is set to open on Monday with a meeting of heads and state and government from around the world. The summit is then set to last two weeks, with expectations it will deliver a binding global agreement on tackling climate change. Ahead of the conference, Green climate change spokesperson Bas Eickhout said:
"After years of preparation, the crucial COP21 UN climate summit is now set to begin. Clearly, the summit will take place in the shadow of the tragic attacks in Paris, however it is now more important than ever to make this summit a success and ensure it delivers an ambitious and binding global agreement.
"While EU leadership on climate change has been lagging for some time now, we would urge all EU governments and the European Commission to step out of their shadows and play a positive role in achieving an ambitious UN climate agreement. Clearly, this will mean the EU delivering more than it has done to date.
Green climate change spokesperson Yannick Jadot said:
"The EU's 2030 climate change targets are acknowledged to be low on ambition and at odds with the EU's responsibility for meeting the goal of limiting warming to below 2 degrees. A positive signal from the EU that it is willing to increase this ambition depending on an agreement at the COP21 would provide some momentum and impetus for the Paris talks.
"The EU must also get its act together on long-term goals. We need to be phasing out carbon globally by 2050 and moving to zero emissions to prevent runaway climate change and the EU should join the other countries calling for this in the UN negotiations and not simply hide behind the unambitious G7 commitment (a global reduction of emissions between 40-70% by 2050).
"Finance for assisting developing countries most affected by climate change will be a crucial factor in agreement at the COP21. If the EU is to try and positively influence the outcome, we need to both deliver on commitments up to 2020 but also commit to fair and predictable scale of public climate aid beyond 2020."
