The European Parliament’s Environment Committee has today voted on a resolution on the upcoming COP22, urging the EU to ratify the Paris Agreement before the end of this year and calling for revision of its 2030 climate target in 2018.
Climate change was high on the agenda as leaders of the world’s largest economies met for the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China. But the communiqué released today once again lacks a deadline for when to phase out subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe calls upon Germany, as next G20 chair and the EU as a whole to take necessary steps to both agree on a rapid phase out of subsidies globally and walk the talk in Europe.
Read more: G20 leaders fail to agree on phase-out date for fossil fuel subsidies
EU countries’ climate targets, included in the proposal for the Effort Sharing Regulation published by the European Commission today are too weak to prevent devastating climate change in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
Read more: EU countries’ emission targets fall short of Paris Agreement goals
EU financial institutions and funds channel billions of euros into fossil fuel projects, while EU policies and laws allow for yet more public money to flow into fossil fuels through the back door. This is the conclusion of a briefing on the various forms of fossil fuel subsidies in the EU, published by Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe today, ahead of the upcoming G20 summit where the topic will be discussed.
Read more: EU’s funding out of sync with the Paris Agreement
The European Commission’s proposal for post-2020 reductions of emissions outside the Emission Trading Scheme risks rewarding countries who are not on track or slow in reaching their current binding target for 2020.