Tomorrow’s State of the European Union address is a perfect opportunity for European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to reveal the progress so far in the development of the new EU long-term climate strategy. Stating his support for reducing emissions to net zero at the latest by 2050 and keeping temperature rise to 1.5C would be an appropriate and timely response to the unprecedented heat waves and forest fires that we have witnessed over the summer and the multiple calls from non-state actors, Member States and the European Parliament to scale up the EU’s climate action.
Ahead of the next trilogue on the Electricity Market Design on 11 September, France, UK, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Ireland and Poland have just issued joint comments on the new rules regarding capacity mechanisms, which stand in stark contradiction to their commitment to fully implement the Paris Agreement.
In May 2018 families from Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Romania, Kenya, Fiji and the Swedish Saami Youth Association Sáminuorra sued the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union for the inadequate climate target for 2030. The lawsuit claims that the Union’s climate target fails to protect their human rights.
In a statement released today the EU and China reaffirm their unequivocal commitment to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and establish a closer partnership on climate action and the clean energy transition.
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The Polish grid operator PSE conducted the general certification procedure earlier this week, thereby prequalifying electricity producers for capacity mechanism payments. The certification is an obligatory first step and conclusions sum up how much and what kind of capacities can take part in the bidding process for the first capacity payments within the Polish capacity market for the period 2021-2023. Whilst this certification does not spell out electricity producing technologies which will benefit, it does sum up eligible quantities for the payments and indicates proportions between different technologies.
Member States gathering yesterday at the European Council discussed the next Multiannual Financial Framework, which sets out EU’s spending priorities after 2020. While they committed to reach a deal as soon as possible, they remained silent on how to make the long term EU budget fit for the Paris Agreement.
Environment Ministers of Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom meeting in Luxembourg today have called upon the EU to make significant further efforts to fight climate change, over and above the already taken commitments.
The high-profile Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA), taking place on 20-21 June in Brussels and co-convened by the EU, China and Canada is one of the most important moments for global climate diplomacy this year. The three hosts, together with ministers representing more than 30 other major powers, are expected to advance discussions towards a successful outcome of the next climate summit COP24 in December 2018 in Poland.
After reaching yesterday a deal on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), early this morning the European Parliament, Council and Commission agreed also on the new Governance Regulation for the period 2021-2030. Like the 2030 renewable energy target, the agreed 2030 target for energy efficiency of 32,5% and the agreed rules for how to ensure the targets are met fall short of what is needed to comply with the Paris Agreement.
The vast majority of European countries are missing the mark and failing to increase our chances of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. Too few of them are advocating for ambitious climate and energy targets and policies, and too many are lagging behind in reducing carbon emissions at the level needed to implement the Paris Agreement. That is according to a new ranking published today by Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe.
Nicolas Derobert
Communications Coordinator
nicolas /at/ caneurope.org
Work: +32 2894 4673
Mobile: +32 483 621 888
Stevan Vujasinović
Communications Coordinator for Southeast Europe
stevan /at/ caneurope.org
Mobile: +381 (0)63 390 218
Goksen Sahin
Communications Coordinator
goksen /at/ caneurope.org
Work: +32 2893 0827
Mobile: +32 468 453 920
