European Union Member States have agreed on a unified stance ahead of next month’s Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP29, in Azerbaijan.
The EU countries are set to call for new ambitious goals to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius at the summit, which will be held from 11 to 22 November in Baku.
The ambitious yet balanced text agreed upon by EU countries will serve as the EU’s roadmap in Baku, according to Hungary, which currently holds the EU presidency.
The EU will continue to play a leading role in international efforts to limit global warming and will call for solidarity with vulnerable countries and communities in this collective struggle, as climate change spares no country, area, or region, the Hungarian delegation noted.
While the EU will speak as one entity, negotiations over the common stance were difficult on Monday in Luxembourg. The Netherlands, for instance, wanted to include nuclear energy as a means to achieve climate goals, but other countries opposed this.
Nuclear energy is not mentioned in the European countries’ declaration. The text also does not make reference to achieving climate goals by 2040, despite calls from many EU countries. Poland opposed this inclusion.
The declaration does, however, refer to a new shared financing goal to support developing countries and emerging economies in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
The EU aims to include a broader group of donor countries, taking into account both their economic development and their share of global greenhouse gas emissions since the early 1990s.
A previous climate finance goal of $100 billion annually was only met in 2022, much to the dismay of poorer countries. In Azerbaijan, all countries will need to agree on a new target for post-2025.
