Debate: UN Climate Change Conference  in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt
Date: TUESDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2022
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

The COP 27 conclusions of the EU Council of Ministers planned for 24 October will reconfirm the EU’s commitment towards the Glasgow Climate Pact and to keeping the 1.5 degree goal within reach.  We have enshrined our commitments into the EU climate law and are pursuing their implementation. The EU is ready to demonstrate how we are staying the course in Sharm. We have been reassuring our partners that the EU’s energy security will not be achieved to the detriment of climate action.  With our ‘Fit for 55’ package and RepowerEU, we are fully committed towards delivery and implementation of our NDC and to climate neutrality by 2050. This is a continuous sign of the EU’s leadership in addressing the climate crisis.  COP 27, as every COP, is also a moment for accountability on climate mitigation. The world needs more and a faster transition, not less. For food security, energy security, climate security, geopolitical security, Sharm el-Sheikh must reaffirm the demand for the implementation of nationally determined contributions and long-term strategies, as well as for the parties to revisit the targets in their NDCs to accelerate global efforts to maintain the 1.5 degree goal within reach.  The COP must also adopt a mitigation work programme to cut emissions in this critical decade, to implement what we agreed in Glasgow on phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, phasing down coal, reducing methane emission and aligning our indices with the 1.5 degree goal.  The EU and its 27 Member States are the largest contributor to the international public climate finance, contributing over EUR 23.5 billion in 2020. We have contributed our fair share to the collective USD 100 billion by 2020 goal and will continue to do so.  But we also recognise that further work is needed from now until 2025 to fulfil the commitments made by developed countries. It is therefore important that other developed countries continue to increase their contributions and deliver on their commitments.  But public finance alone cannot deliver the trillions of dollars of investment required annually for climate finance. While it plays an important role in support for adaptation and support for the most vulnerable countries and communities, the scale of investments needed requires action by all countries to mobilise private investment and shift finance flows towards the low-emission climate resilient development.  That means especially stronger engagement of the private sector. To do so, we need to align all financial flows with the Paris Agreement long-term goals. The smartest and the most efficient thing we can do is to put a price to carbon and stop subsidising it. Avoiding and reducing emissions while increasing our resilience to climate change needs to be mainstreamed into every investment decision, domestically and globally, as well as into national budgets and the development finance system.  In recent years, the EU and its Member States have launched policy initiatives to make finance flows consistent with low GHG emissions and climate resilient development. Cooperation is the key lever and it can ensure peer learning. Developing countries should be supported in implementing initiatives specifically aimed at making finance consistent with climate objectives.  On climate adaptation, we see three building blocks for an outcome in Sharm el-Sheikh. Encouraging the development of more national adaptation plans in developing countries – these plans are the foundation tools to inform action at national level and are catalysts for increasing ambition and attracting finance. Second, in forming the global stocktake in 2023, in reviewing overall progress made on adaptation through general recommendations on insights acquired this far. And third, identifying key issues and interlinkages with other environmental agreements such as the Biodiversity Convention and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.  Honourable Members, with our domestic experience in implementing the EU Green Deal and external policy instruments and dialogues, we are in a position to help our partners to advance their transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. We cement that position and offer our joint strong support to the Egyptian COP 27 Presidency for a successful outcome in Sharm.