In a joint statement published yesterday, European affairs ministers of France, Germany, and Poland recalled the EU’s commitment to updating its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) - the bloc’s 2030 climate target - “in good time” before COP26 which is taking place in November this year.
Now the European Commission needs to accelerate its work to present a proposal as soon as possible and ahead of the June European Council at the latest.
Today the European Commission has revealed the first act of the European Green Deal, the Just Transition Mechanism, a funding scheme set to address the investment needs of Europe’s regions in their move to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
This should provide new impetus for drastic emissions cuts in the short term.
Read more: A Just Transition Mechanism to bolster EU’s climate ambition
EU leaders meeting in Brussels yesterday agreed to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050, thereby opening the way to start a discussion on raising the EU’s 2030 climate target as soon as possible. Poland has been given time until June to fully endorse the commitment to implement the agreed EU objective.
Read more: EU aims for net zero emissions by 2050, now it needs to work on raising the 2030 target
After a year of unprecedented mobilisations calling for urgent climate action, world leaders at COP 25 failed to step up climate action in line with the 1.5°C objective of the Paris Agreement. The lack of ambition at COP25 puts more pressure on the EU to come forward with a substantially higher 2030 climate pledge in early 2020 to convince other big emitters and pave the way for increasing global ambition by next year’s COP26.
Read more: COP25 : a profound disconnect between people and politicians on the climate emergency
COP 25 Press Conference can be followed here: https://unfccc-cop25.streamworld.de/webcast/can-europe-climate-litigation-taking-governments-a
In 2019, climate litigation continued to expand across world jurisdictions. Increasing number of citizens and NGOs started to use legal frameworks to hold their governments and fossil fuel companies accountable for failing to address the climate crisis. Besides, courts have taken decisions to recognise that the governments and big emitters are failing to protect human rights due to their climate inaction.