The EU must lead on funnelling trillions into frontline communities. It is time to tax fossil fuel giants and to stop the hypocrisy of looking to the future, while continuing to perpetuate the very systems that caused the crisis.

Developed countries must agree at COP29 to establish a significantly more ambitious post-2025 New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) that reflects the financial needs of developing countries to respond to the climate emergency. The current collective (and already insufficient) USD 100 billion goal was supposed to be achieved from 2020 onwards, following the agreement made in Copenhagen in 2009. The goal was only achieved  in 2022 according to donor reports that contained some questionable accounting.The NCQG should strive to channel a minimum of $1 trillion in public grants and grant-equivalent finance to trigger and support necessary transformations in the Global South. Distinct public finance sub-goals on mitigation, adaptation and and loss and damage action should provide guidance for channelling that finance. The EU should continue to convince other contributing countries to ensure significantly scaled up financial commitments. A key point is that, especially in climate vulnerable and fragile contexts, market-driven private finance is usually insufficient, unavailable, ill-suited, and generates unsustainable debt. Additionally, the EU must now advocate for a long term strategy and capitalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund in line with its historical responsibility, since it became operational after COP28. The fund should prioritise just, fair, and direct access for frontline local communities, especially those that have been historically marginalised and are already paying the highest costs of climate change impacts. 

The EU must also champion innovative and sustainable sources of finance, such as global, EU, and national subsidies, taxes and levies on the fossil fuel industry and other high-emitting sectors, in line with the Polluter Pays Principle, to provide long-term, equitable support. Such funding sources can redirect trillions of public financial support to climate action, including the Loss & Damage Fund, and simultaneously stimulate the just transition to a green economy in Europe – levelling the playing field for green industries to compete against traditional high-emitters including fossil fuel companies, corporate agribusiness, airlines and financial institutions. 

The EU must champion the phasing out of fossil fuels for good. Within its borders, this means coal should be phased out by 2030, fossil gas by 2035 and oil by 2040. There should be no loopholes and no reliance on unproven and costly techno-fixes like carbon capture. Subsidies for fossil fuels should be cut by 2025 in a socially just manner and the move to 100% renewables should be accelerated with nature protection and community participation at its heart. A 100% renewable energy Europe by 2040 is not only possible, but is an essential transformation. The EU should adopt binding targets to reach at least 50% renewables by 2030 and aim for at least 20% energy savings by 2030, as well as halving energy consumption by 2040.  

We therefore call for the EU to utilise COP29 to declare that fossil fuel phase out dates will be part of the upcoming EU Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).

The continued use of fossil fuels is severely damaging the planet’s ability to provide critical ecosystem services, including stable weather systems, clean air, fresh water, fertile soils, and biodiversity, with particularly alarming impacts on oceans, which absorb around a quarter of global CO₂ emissions and are suffering from acidification, warming, and deoxygenation.  By delaying the transition, we are not only locking ourselves into high-carbon pathways, risking trillions in stranded assets, but also causing irreversible damage to life-sustaining ecosystems and the people who are part of it. 

We therefore call on the EU to support a COP29 conclusion to triple global renewable energy capacity to over 11,000 GW by 2030 as called for by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and deliver the EU’s fair share towards its achievement. The EU must also convince other major countries, including in the G7, to phase out all fossil fuel subsidies by latest 2025 and achieve similar progress in the G20, avoiding qualifiers like “environmentally harmful” that dilute commitments. The EU and its allies must stop treating carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) as a panacea – these over-hyped solutions have consistently struggled to reach the targeted capture rates. CCUS is a dangerous distraction from the 100% Renewable Energy pathway, and should not be sucking in precious public resources. 

Governments across the world must stand up against those who would seek to imprison peaceful/non-violent activists or silence dissent. The EU should lead by example, ensuring that those on the frontlines of the climate movement—civil society, indigenous peoples, and local communities—are not shut out, but instead have ownership of the process. Without the movement, climate diplomacy is an elite gathering that serves power, not people.

The EU must ensure human rights are safeguarded within international, regional, and national climate processes; and ensure that civil society and frontline communities can meaningfully participate. Independent monitoring of transnational climate governance is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is intrinsic to the success of the UNFCCC process and the implementation of last year’s global stocktake outcomes, and should not be subjugated to private interests, harassment, or intimidation. The EU should advocate for criteria reform for COP host country selection, ensuring hosts uphold international human rights standards and protect participants as well as local activists from intimidation and harm.

The influence of the fossil fuel industry over the UNFCCC process continues to hinder meaningful climate action. We call on the EU to push for a robust UNFCCC Conflict of Interest Policy to define and regulate conflicts of interest, ensuring that the integrity of international climate negotiations is upheld and that policy decisions prioritise the future of the planet and the well-being of its peoples, over private profits.