Just ahead of the world’s foremost summit on climate change, COP24, 16 European leaders have called upon all countries of the world to commit to review the levels of ambition of their Paris Agreement pledges by 2020, in light of the findings of the IPCC Special Report.
The EU now needs to translate this statement into an action plan on how and when its Member States will agree on a new 2030 target, in line with the long-term objectives of the Paris Agreement.
In reaction to the declaration issued today, Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:
“This call for urgent and decisive action could not be more timely, as the upcoming climate summit must be the moment when all countries commit to step up climate action. It is now time for EU leaders to act and agree to massively increase emission cuts within the bloc, to encourage other countries to do the same. To stay below 1.5°C, the EU will need to significantly increase its 2030 target, even beyond the 55% reduction some Member States and the European Parliament are calling for, and ensure it achieves net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.”
Countries that signed the declaration include: Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.
It comes a few days ahead of the publication of the draft EU long-term climate strategy. The strategy is a critical opportunity to align the EU’s climate action with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and put it on a trajectory to help limit global warming to 1.5°C.
ENDS
Contact:
Goksen Sahin, CAN Europe Communications Coordinator, goksen@caneurope.org, +32 468 45 39 20
