Debate: UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the UK
Date: WEDNESDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2021
Speaker: Virginijus Sinkevičius
Language: EN

Science demonstrates that global average temperatures will exceed 1.5 degrees within the next 20 years in all scenarios. The United Nations report on the parties’ nationally determined contributions revealed that we are well off the Paris consistent pathways necessary to respond. However, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century, with the temperature overshoot, is still possible. It is still possible if parties achieve drastic cuts in emissions in the coming decade and net zero emissions around 2050. Significantly increased global mitigation efforts will reduce the risks and impacts of climate change, but we will also need to collectively and urgently scale up our efforts to adapt to the many unprecedented and irreversible changes in the climate systems in all regions of the world. As if all this was not enough, the latest report from the OECD shows that the donor community is off track from reaching the goal of mobilising USD 100 billion annually from 2020 to 2025. Against this background, the COP26 Council conclusions, adopted two weeks ago, set out the EU’s main political objectives for Glasgow: raising global ambition, enhancing resilience and scaling up climate finance. We have a strong responsibility to those societies most vulnerable and existentially threatened by climate change. These are exactly the messages Executive Vice-President Timmermans is bringing to the many countries he is visiting and to the many meetings he is holding, also this week and today, to prepare for COP26.  The EU has been consistently calling upon all parties, particularly the world’s largest economies and biggest emitters, to step up their game before Glasgow. The nationally determined contributions and net zero strategies of all parties should set each of us on a path to net zero emissions, in line with the principles of progression and the highest possible ambitions, as set out in the Paris Agreement. In particular, parties in G20 countries that haven’t enhanced their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) or have not submitted net zero strategies need to come forward as soon as possible.  Furthermore, we can only ensure the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement by all parties if we have a robust and ambitious framework of rules. Therefore, COP26 should address the single element of the rule book left outstanding from the previous two conferences – the guidance on voluntary cooperation and market-based mechanisms under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement – as well as conclude arrangements under the enhanced transparency framework, which is the backbone of a well—functioning Paris Agreement.  Securing a meaningful outcome for market measures under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is a key priority for the EU. Compromises that put environmental integrity at risk are not acceptable to us. Fostering global ambition, ensuring environmental integrity and avoiding double counting are at the core of the Paris Agreement and of the EU position on market mechanisms. Ambition is not only mitigation action. COP26 should deliver a signal that priority must be given to adaptation. The EU will contribute fully to achieving the Paris Agreement global goal on adaptation by enhancing resilience both at home and in vulnerable communities around the world. This is why we adopted an adaptation strategy for the EU, which was submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ahead of Glasgow and calls for the other parties also to communicate how they are stepping up their respective adaptation actions.  The COP outcome should also provide a sense of balance in the treatment of mitigation and adaptation, which is a key concern for our developing country partners. The EU remains fully committed to a sustained and increased investment in enhancing resilience and adaptation in the most disaster—prone countries and regions. International cooperation on adaptation is a highlight of the new strategy, with a priority for Africa, least developed countries and small island developing states.  Furthermore, the EU and its Member States support many activities to avert, minimise and address loss and damage through development cooperation, disaster risk reduction and humanitarian aid, as well as dedicated climate funds, organisations and initiatives inside and outside the climate process.  However, we must be mindful that all actors must step up their efforts to face the challenges of climate change. We need to advocate for mainstreaming the climate issue in other relevant policy areas so that we can better consider the risks and needs of the most vulnerable in all our support efforts and in international processes. We have to do this in the same way that the EU supports mainstreaming of climate action across all financial flows, including development institutions. Action demands resources and we should continue showing our solidarity to the most vulnerable countries. The EU and its 27 Member States remain the largest contributor of public climate finance to developing countries, including to the multilateral climate funds, and contributed EUR 21.9 billion in climate finance for 2019. This is double the level in 2013. As you know, President von der Leyen, just last month, committed an additional EUR 4 billion until 2027.  As part of a global effort, the EU will continue to take the lead in mobilising climate finance from a wide variety of sources, instruments and channels. These include instruments to unlock the huge potential of private finance through the targeted use of public climate finance. Therefore, it is crucial to make swift and ambitious progress on making all finance flows consistent with the Paris Agreement. To this end, following the Commission’s action plan on financing sustainable growth and the follow—up strategy for financing the transition to a sustainable economy, progress is being made on various fronts: on an EU taxonomy for environmentally sustainable economic activities, on sustainability—related disclosures for issuers and for financial market participants, on the European Green Bond Standard, and on corporate sustainability reporting.  That is encouraging, but we must continue to catalyse and accelerate action from all economic actors to reach the objectives of the Paris Agreement. We see leaders from the private sector, civil society, youth and other stakeholders coming together to show determination to accelerate transformative change on a scale that has not been seen before. All this demonstrates increasing awareness of the need for global climate action.  Finally, climate change, the biodiversity crisis and desertification, as well as land, water and ocean degradation, are strongly interconnected and reinforce each other. Climate change and the nature crisis can only be successfully addressed in a coherent approach that comprises mutually beneficial strategies, including nature—based solutions with safeguards. We cannot solve one crisis without solving the other. This was very clearly highlighted by the recent joint report by the UN, the IPCC and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, and this must also be reflected in the upcoming two COPs. We saw a positive first part of the biodiversity COP15 in Kunming last week, and we will pursue our efforts in this regard, also in view of the second part of COP15, which will reconvene in face—to—face mode in Kunming next spring. Therefore, the EU will continue pursuing closer cooperation and synergies between the UN, the UNFCCC and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, including the alignment with the post—2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and we will further advance measures for mutually reinforcing co-benefits for climate mitigation and adaptation and halting biodiversity loss.  We should all offer our strong support to the UK COP26 Presidency with a view to a successful outcome in Glasgow.