Ministers in charge of climate change of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Portugal and Luxembourg meeting in Paris today have called for ensuring that the EU’s climate policies are in line with the Paris Agreement. For that reason, they recognized the need to develop a long term EU climate strategy which will spell out how to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.
This will require a substantial increase of the level of ambition of EU action, including a much higher target for emissions reductions for 2030 and pathways to reduce carbon emissions to net zero.
In reaction to the Ministers’ joint press statement issued at the end of the meeting, Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:
“More and more European countries agree that the EU needs to do more to tackle the climate crisis and fully implement the Paris Agreement. The critical conversation on how to increase the EU’s climate commitments is finally moving forward. We urge all other European countries to join this coalition, make the Paris Agreement a reality and align EU policies with the ambition to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. The draft long term climate strategy to be published within a year is the ideal opportunity to go well beyond the current commitments.”
Contacts:
Wendel Trio, CAN Europe Director, wendel@caneurope.org, +32 473 170 887
Ania Drazkiewicz, CAN Europe Head of Communications, ania@caneurope.org, +32 494 525 738
Notes:
[1] Joint ministers’ press release from the meeting: https://www.ecologique-solidaire.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2018.04.25_cp_en_corrige.pdf
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe’s largest coalition working on climate and energy issues. With over 150 member organisations in more than 30 European countries – representing over 44 million citizens – CAN Europe works to prevent dangerous climate change and promote sustainable climate and energy policy in Europe.
