Today, 18 September 2015, the Environment Council of the European Union adopted its latest conclusions, setting out the EU position for the UN climate change conference in Paris this December. Although not groundbreaking, the conclusions state and reiterate the EU expectations for COP21and take a holistic view on outstanding matters, including pre-2020 considerations.
The 28 environment ministers agreed on a common stance on three major issues: the pillars of a legally-binding Paris Agreement in order to remain below 2°C of global warming, the implementation mechanisms for such agreement, and the mitigation steps to be taken pre-2020.
Welcoming the G7 Declaration of June 2015, the European Council calls for a “long-term vision of global and sustainable climate neutrality and climate resilience”.
The conclusions stipulate that greenhouse gas emissions peak by 2020, are reduced by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 1990, to eventually achieve carbon neutrality or negative emissions by the end of the century. They propose a five-year cycle within which Parties are required to “either submit new or updated commitments, without falling behind previous levels of commitment, or resubmit the existing ones”. This is important, considering that INDCs submitted thus far suggest that the agreement will fall short of achieving reduction commitments necessary to stay in a 2°C world. With decreasing costs of renewable energy technologies and improved understanding of the substantial co-benefits of climate action - complementing the sustainable development agenda- countries need a regular mechanism to adjust ambitions upwards.
In addition, the EU’s commitment to climate finance and the Green Climate Fund are reaffirmed, with more details to be discussed by finance ministers in November this year.
According to Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete the conclusions represent a solid position based on which the EU will be “a deal maker and not a deal taker” in the upcoming Paris negotiations.
French environment minister Nicolas Hulot has resigned live on national radio in a surprise move that will come as a blow to president Emmanuel Macron’s green credentials. Nicolas Hulot had not made the French president aware of his decision to quit, he told radio presenters, adding his time in office had been an ‘accumulation of disappointments’.
Liberia’s largest palm oil producer, Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) pulls out of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) – how can rural communities cope with the impacts? The forests near GVL’s Liberian plantations are not only sacred sites of the region's people but also heavily populated with chimpanzees, leopards, pygmy hippopotamus and forest elephants which are significant not only to the local ecosystem but globally.
Mine closures have caused social and political turmoil in many regions, for example in South Africa. But there are ways of planning and managing the phase-out so that when the inevitable happens, people are better prepared. A new study looks at opportunities beyond mining and finds that infrastructure that supports mining can also be put to new use.
Population pressure, a lack of economic opportunities, environmental degradation, and new forms of travel are contributing to human displacement and unsafe migration on an unprecedented scale. And as millions more people see climate change erode their livelihoods, the problem will get worse in the absence of visionary global leadership.