Ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, MEPs are set to push for accelerated climate action worldwide and for the EU to remain a world leader in fighting climate change. MEPs are expected to express their concern that the targets announced in Paris in 2015 would result in warming well above three degrees by 2100, compared to pre-industrial levels. Opening statements by Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs and by Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

EICKHOUT, Bas (Greens/EFA, NL)

SINKEVIČIUS, Virginijus (LT, EC)

LOGAR, Anže (SI)

COP 26 (T)

UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the UK (COP26) - Oral Question: opening statements by Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs and by Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), Thank you, Madam Chair. And good morning, everyone. We now turn to a very important discussion on climate change and the Conference to climate conference that we're going to have in Glasgow in two weeks time, where it is going to be very clear that this is going to be one of the most important climate conferences we've seen over the last couple of years where the moment needs to be that member states of the world are stepping up their climate ambition.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), If you look at climate science, it is becoming more and more clear that and looking at the latest IPCC report that was launched in August this summer, it is very clear that the climate impacts are more severe and there are clearer reasons to limit global warming well below two degrees, as we have said in Paris Agreement, but also very clearly that we want to achieve it to keep it below 1.5 degrees.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), If you look at the current pledges on the table, we are not on track. It's even worse is that at this stage, if we look at all the national pledges around the world, the emissions are still expected to rise until 2030, whereas IPCC again climate science is making very clear that by 2030, in order to keep 1.5 degrees within reach, we need a reduction of 45 percent by 2030 globally.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), And we are not on track if we look at the current pledges, and this is also why the Glasgow moment is so important to raise the ambition of all the different countries in the world. We are very well aware and that's also described in the resolution, the the achievements and the changes that we have seen in the United States.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), But of course, we are also concerned about the developments in the United States in translating their promises into legislation. And there we see some issues as well, which for sure will be debated in Glasgow. But also the other big player China.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), We are very concerned about their pledges to reach climate neutrality by 2060 or carbon neutrality by 2060 and reach that some of their emissions today are the peak of emissions by 2030 are insufficient. If we look at what needs to happen and we will make that message, of course, also very clear.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), We also still expect from some of our partner countries stronger commitments, and I think a country like Australia is certainly do mentioning because they until now have not come forward with climate neutrality targets and despite all the other developed countries did. Looking at Europe, it is, of course, and that's also clearly in the in the resolution.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), We are commenting on the fit for 55 and the package that is there up front. However, we also do realise that also within Europe, steps need to be taken to translate that into law. The proposals are there by the commission, but we as a house and also the member states, need to develop on that and very important, and this is probably also an assignment to the European Commission.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), There is still a lack of mainstreaming the Green Deal and climate policies in all the areas of fields, and I think I would like to certainly also mention climate finance for that. And for that, maybe it is good to sometimes also just refer to the Paris Agreement because quite often people are talking about the Paris Agreement but you sometimes wonder whether people also really read the Paris Agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), And Article two, the backbone of the Paris Agreement, is making very clear that things need to happen on mitigation adaptation. But the third element of Article two is very clearly also stating that all the commits us of the Paris Agreement, they promise to make their financial flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), So the third pillar of the Paris Agreement, besides mitigation adaptation, is making the financial flows consistent with our low carbon pathways. And also here is an assignment for Europe that's that still needs the need to take action.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), I think if you look at all the top on all the issues that are at the table on the rulebook, we of course, are happy that finally Europe is taking steps on the common timeframe, the five years timeframe. It was about time probably to take steps there. But we also just want to stress once again that actions need to be expected from aviation and maritime.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), And just also here, very important to state, aviation and maritime do fall under the Paris Agreement. There was a decision that maybe two other UN bodies can handle this, but maritime and aviation do fall under the Paris commitments. And I think sometimes some of the people saying that they are not part of the Paris commitments, and I think we need to make that point very clear.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), For the rest of the resolution. I think it's very clear on innovation, competitiveness. It's also very much welcoming seabam as part of the Fit for 55 package so that this entire package makes very clear that we can deliver from the European perspective on the promises that we make, so that we make and will ensure that in Glasgow we are having a leading role.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), And that's probably a final point. Let this leading role show it also on some of the sectoral agreements on coal phase out the end of the combustion engine. That kind of discussions are being done at Glasgow as well, and we expect Europe to be at the forefront as well of that debate. Thank you very much.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Madam Chair, all the members. Commissioner. Mr Okoth. It is a great pleasure to address you today to discuss the preparation ahead of COP26, which will take place in Glasgow very soon. After the postponement of COP last year and a stark reminder in the last IPCC report of the dangers of climate change. It is more urgent than ever to strengthen global climate action and to finalise without delay the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, It is important that the world comes out of Glasgow with bold claim, climate target and an ambitious and effective rulebook to guide global mitigation and adaption measures for the years to come.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, As you noted in your question, COP26 as four major objectives fastest substantively raise global emission reduction and commit to achieve net zero emissions in line with the latest scientific findings in order to keep 1.5 degrees within reach.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Second, to finalise the rule book book on the issue of carbon markets, as well as to agree on a common timeframe, aligning the timelines of the climate pledges of all parties, and ensure that the global climate action is conducted in a transparent and accountable manner.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, That to strengthen global adaptation measures and building resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change, and for to increase the global efforts to meet the climate finance pledge of $100 billion a year to developing countries. For each of these objectives, the EU negotiations position is clear.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, As you know, the council adopted earlier this month its conclusions on the EU position at COP 26. The conclusion emphasised the extreme urgency of stepping up the global response to address the climate emergency and underlined the need for a just and fair climate position across the world.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regarding the rulebook on Article six, the agreement to be reached at COP26 should ensure robust accounting for the use of international carbon markets, avoid double counting and also guarantee environmental integrity and ambition. In Glasgow, the EU will also express its preference for a common timeframe of five years for all parties, with a view to reaching consensus during the negotiation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Moreover, the EU will insist on transparency and accountability to be delivered through the Enhanced Transparency Framework, which will be essential to build and maintain trust amongst parties as we implement our commitments.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finally, as regards climate finance, the EU and its member state will continue scaling up their contribution to international climate finance as part of the goal of developing countries to collectively mobilise $100 billion per year through 2025 and will continue to urge other developed countries to do the same.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, The EU and its member states are the largest contributor of international public climate finance. And since 2013 have more than doubled their contribution. I understand that the Commission and some member states have further strengthened their pledges ahead of the meeting in Glasgow. In any event, the EU will engage constructively with the other parties to ensure a stronger climate finance goal for the past 2025 period.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, President, honourable members. A number of parties, NGOs, young people gathered last month in Milan and the public at large have called on the COP to do more to address the climate emergency. They are right. The wall is currently not on the path to keep global warming well below two degrees and keep 1.5 degree with reach.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anže LOGAR, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Many more collective efforts are needed to keep our planet's temperature with safe limits. In this context, at COP26, the EU wants to negotiate an ambitious and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, and we call on all parties to come forward with strengthened national emissions reduction targets and international climate finance pledges. Thank you very much for your attention.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, President, honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to have this important debate. As we look ahead to preparations of the upcoming 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Science demonstrates that global average temperatures will exceed 1.5 degrees within the next 20 years in all scenarios and the United Nations report, which the party's nationally determined contributions revealed that we are well off the Paris consistent pathways necessary to respond.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, However, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century with the temperature overshoot is still possible. It's 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.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, 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 system in all regions of the world. And 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 100 billion dollars annually from 2020 to 2025.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, 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 do society's most vulnerable and existentially threatened by climate change, and these are exactly the messages executive Vice-President Timmermans is bringing to the many countries he's visiting and to the many meetings he's holding also this week and today to prepare for COP26.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, The EU has been consistently calling up on a 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.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, In particular, parties and G20 countries that haven't enhanced their indices or 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 ambition, ambitious framework of rules.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Therefore, COP26 should address the single element of the rule book left outstanding from the previous two. The conference is the guidance on voluntary cooperation and market based mechanisms under Article six of the Paris Agreement, as well conclude arrangements under the Enhanced Transparency Framework, which is the backbone of well-functioning Paris Agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Securing a meaningful outcome for market measures under the article, six 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.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Ambition is not only mitigation action. COP26 should deliver a signal that priority must be given to adaptation. The EU will contribute fully in achieving the Paris Agreement global goal on adaptation by enhancing resilience both at home and in vulnerable communities around the world.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, And this is why we adopted an adaptation strategy for the EU, which was submitted to UNFCCC ahead of Glasgow and calls for the other parties to also communicate how they are stepping up their respective adaptation actions. The outcome should also provide a sense of balance in the treatment of mitigation and adaptation, which is a key concern for our developing countries partners.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, The EU remains fully committed to a sustained and increased investments 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.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Furthermore, the EU and its member states support many activities to avert, minimise and address loss and damage from development cooperation, disaster risk reduction and humanitarian aid, as well as dedicated climate funds, organisations and initiatives inside and outside the climate process.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, 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 international processes.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, 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 Fund.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, To have contributed to 1.9 billion euro in climate finance for 2019, this is a double the level in 2013. As you know, President von der Leyen has just last month committed an additional four billion euro 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.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, These include instruments to unlock the huge potential of private finance through the targeted use of public climate finance. Therefore, it's crucial to make swift and ambitious progress on making all finance flows consistent with the Paris Agreement.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, To this end, following the Commission's Action Plan on financing, sustainable growth and a follow up strategy for the financing the transition to a sustainable economy, there is progress 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.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, 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 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.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, All this demonstrates increasing awareness of the need for global climate action. Finally, climate change and biodiversity crisis desertification, as well as land, water and ocean degradation, are strongly interconnected and reinforce each other.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Climate change and the nature crisis can only be successfully addressed in a coherent approach that compromises 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 IPCC and the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, And this must also be reflected in the upcoming two COPS. We have seen 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 have reconvene in face-to-face mode in Kunming next spring.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Therefore, the EU will continue pursuing the closer cooperation and synergies between UNFCCC and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, including the alignment with the post-2020 global framework for Biodiversity, and we will further advance measures for mutually reinforcing co-benefits for climate mitigation, adaptation and halting biodiversity loss.

SOUNDBITE (English), Virginijus SINKEVIČIUS, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Honourable members, we should all offer our strong support to the UK COP26 presidency with a view to a successful outcome in Glasgow. Thank you.