Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), Chair of the EP delegation at COP28 and Wopke HOEKSTRA, European Commissioner for Climate Action hold a joint press conference during the COP 28 in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

EP delegation

press conference

LIESE, Peter (EPP, DE)

fight against climate change (T)

United Arab Emirates

Dubai

Wopke HOEKSTRA (NL)

COP 28 (T)

Joint press conference by Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), Chair of the EP delegation at COP28 and Wopke HOEKSTRA, European Commissioner for Climate Action

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/73774756/1701967806008_I250268Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (English) Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner for Climate Action, Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. A very good afternoon to all of you. As you can see, the European Union has not only come to this scope with high ambition, we also come with high numbers of politicians. And today I am accompanied by the Spanish presidency of the Council, as was the case yesterday, but who represents all 27 national governments of the European Union. But I'm now here with, as we said, at the heart of the delegation of the European Parliament, Peter Liese, who is sitting next to me.

SOUNDBITE (English) Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner for Climate Action, And what I would like to articulate is that the European Parliament is a key partner in our domestic climate action, and so it is in implementing all the commitments we make here at the COP. And just to give you one example, it is thanks to their work of the European Parliament that we expect to exceed our 2030 emissions reduction target. But Peter, of course, will tell you more about how the EU is delivering at home shortly. Here, our joint aim is to deliver globally as well.

SOUNDBITE (English) Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner for Climate Action, As you know on today we kick off the second week of the negotiations, now at a ministerial level and we are starting this week, I think it's fair to say, with a bit or maybe even more than a bit of wind in ourselves. The Presidency has built up positive momentum and prepare the ground for the crunch talks that will happen this week, the next couple of days, the days that we have ahead of us. And I want to thank them for the work that has been done so far.

SOUNDBITE (English) Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner for Climate Action, And I want to urge them to continue this leadership and to continue this drive. This was also my message to Dr. Sultan when we met with him yesterday morning. Because it is with strong leadership of the co-presidents and constructive engagements, by literally all parties we have here united, that we can reach the ambitious outcomes that scientists demands. That's the case the next generations deserve.

SOUNDBITE (English) Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner for Climate Action, And let me be explicit here as well. And ambitious global stocktake means peaking global emissions by 2025, reducing emissions by 43% this decade, so that will be done by 2030. And clearing the way for the next round. And the next, just to be precise, must be in line with the 1.5 degrees and deliver a global emission reduction of 60% by 2035. This is what we have to do. This is what we have to do here in the next couple of days.

SOUNDBITE (English) Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner for Climate Action, And we have to do that to keep the Paris Agreement alive, to keep 1.5 alive. I mean, even I had to keep faith in the multilateral system, here as we speak. And we have texts, we have options on the table, which in the right combination allow us to achieve these outcomes. And now we need to refine these texts. We need to reduce the options. We need to move to consensus and to ambition. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), Thank you very much. Dear Commissioner, Ladies and gentlemen, the European Parliament's delegation is here to support the EU negotiators, which means the Presidency and the Commission. But we are also here to push them and to scrutinise them. The European Parliament is co-legislator, so whatever the European Union commits, when we put it into legislation, we need to agree and we are also part of the budgetary authority.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), That's why we are here. And we have adopted ahead of the COP a resolution with a huge majority where we outline our priorities. And we clearly said that we will not be ready to accept any results. We need the result that really addresses the challenges. And it's clear we are here also to represent European citizens.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), In our resolution and in our talks here, we support the tripling of renewable energies, we support the doubling of energy efficiency and a tangible face out of fossil fuels as soon as possible, including by halting all new investments in fossil fuel extraction. I quote from our resolution. And above all, we ask for rapid, deep and sustained mitigation efforts to achieve the reduction of 43% by 2030, as it was mentioned by the Commissioner. This is in our resolution. And please note, we asked the developed countries and the major emitters to lead by example.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), The European Union is tremendously ambitious when it comes to the reduction of greenhouse gases, and that is also due to the Parliament. You know, original ideas of the Commission in the climate law was 55% reduction until 2030. As it is our international commitment, the Parliament pushed for higher ambition and we are now in our legislation at 57%. So, we overachieve our international commitment.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), That will bring us to per capita emissions, we have currently per capita emissions at 6.32 tons. We will go below four tons in 2030 by implementing the legislation that is already there. So, not plans, not ideas, but legislation. Also when it comes to climate finance, European Union is a frontrunner. About more than half of the pledges that have been made here in Dubai for loss and damage and more than half of the 700 million comes from Team Europe, Commission and Member States.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), And, you know, this has to be noted and we have to defend this at home. People ask us, you do it. It's right. We like ambition. But they also ask, what are others doing? Do we only lead, but do others follow? And here, we have not yet the picture that we need. I acknowledge what the Presidency has done on loss and damage and also the well-organised COP here. But when we look at the per capita emissions of the Emirates, they are at 21,75.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), So, and there is no plan to reduce them as we do in Europe. The same applies to the United States per capita emissions, more than 14 tons. And even if which we all hope President Biden is successful, they will be around ten tonnes in 2030. And also China has already per capita emissions higher than the European Union. The emissions are at 8.85 tonnes and there is no plan from China to reduce them by 20%, 40% or 55%. So, that's why we need more ambition. We need to see more ambition here to defend what we are doing at home.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), We are very happy that there is a lot of interests in our measures to address climate change, a lot of interest in the market based measures, emission trading and carbon border adjustment. They are key to deliver our commitments. They are the key instruments of the European Union and they are also key to generate the money. So, climate finance depends on ETS and CBAM because it's a source of money for the European Commission and for the Member States to do what we need to do at this COP and at future occasions.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), We know that there are questions on CBAM in particular, and I'm very happy that the Deputy Chair of the Parliament's delegation is the rapporteur on CBAM. Mohammed Chahim is here to answer any questions. So, we are here to talk. But if somebody comes with the agenda here to destroy the CBAM, he will destroy much more than CBAM. The ambition of the European Union, the commitment for international climate finance is also linked to the package that we have agreed.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), So, let's talk, but let's not destroy important elements. So, I hope the message is clear. We want global climate policy to succeed. We want to continue to lead by example, but we desperately need others to follow. Thank you.

Q&A, Question regarding on the CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) and its impact in Africa and Asia.

Q&A, Question regarding on relations between the party delegations and the negotiations on the COP develops.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), -

SOUNDBITE (English) Wopke HOEKSTRA, Commissioner for Climate Action, -

Q&A, Question regarding on Commissioner Hoekstra's impressions on phasing out fossil fuels in the final agreement at COP 28. Second question on his reaction to Armenia dropping its bid to host COP 29.

Q&A, Question regarding on emissions reduction in the defence sector.

Q&A, Question regarding on the biggest sticking points towards reaching a final agreement.

Q&A, Question regarding on consequences of not making decisions during the COP 28.