The EU and the 2015 International Climate Change Agreement

 

SUMMARY OF:

Communication (COM(2013) 167 final) —The 2015 International Climate Change Agreement: Shaping international climate policy beyond 2020

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE COMMUNICATION?

It sets out the fundamental issues that the European Commission believes should be addressed in the latest multinational efforts to tackle climate change. These should put the world on track to reduce global emissions by at least 60% below 2010 levels by 2050.

KEY POINTS

• The EU agreed in October 2014 that its contribution will be a binding, economy-wide cut in domestic greenhouse gases (GHG) of at least 40% by 2030.
• The communication stresses that the new agreement must reflect how the world has changed since climate negotiations began in 1990 and will continue to evolve as 2030 approaches.
• The Commission communication emphasises the importance of the following components:
  • Ambitious national commitments towards clear and fair targets within a common legal set of rules. These should be achievable and reviewed as global and national economic circumstances evolve.
  • Developed and developing countries alike should contribute towards the overall goal of limiting global average temperature rise to 2^oC.
  • All countries should be accountable to each other and to the public for meeting their targets.

BACKGROUND

• The United Nations launched negotiations on a new climate agreement at the end of 2011 in Durban. This was with the aim of bringing into one comprehensive system the patchwork of binding and non-binding arrangements put in place since the 1992 Kyoto Protocol.
• The international community set itself the target of securing a new climate change agreement in Paris in December 2015. The EU believed it should be as ambitious as possible, involving concrete commitments from all major economies. At the Paris climate conference (COP21), 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016.
• For more information, see the European Commission’s web page on the Paris Agreement.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions —The 2015 International Climate Change Agreement: Shaping international climate policy beyond 2020 (COM(2013) 167 final, 26.3.2013)

last update 14.11.2016