Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper), MEPs will be present in big numbers at the COP28 talks in Dubai, starting on 30 November.
From Thursday heads of state and government, ministers, the EU – represented by Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra – and representatives of non-governmental organizations and lobby groups will be negotiating the global climate crisis at the 28th United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai.
EPP Group MEPs Peter Liese, Lídia Pereira, Stelios Kympouropoulos, and Maria Spyraki will participate in the meeting which runs until 12 December. The EPP Group says it wants other continents to “follow Europe’s example.”
It said,” The EPP Group has shown that decarbonization can go hand in hand with industrial development through a series of newly adopted climate laws agreed under its leadership.”
The Greens/EFA in the European Parliament will also be present in Dubai. They have issued their wish list of demands ahead of the big COP28 talks.
Greens MEPs Bas Eickhout and Jutta Paulus are both members of the European Parliament’s COP28 delegation, as well as Michael Bloss and Hannah Neumann.
Eickhout, Greens/EFA Vice President and member of the European Parliament delegation to COP28, commented, “If we want to halt climate change and further accelerate the energy transition, that means clarity on the end goal: a world that says goodbye to fossil energy.”
The MEP said, “Besides climate ambition, the Dubai summit is about what exactly the climate damage fund agreed earlier should look like, and which countries pay and possibly receive money.
“This fund should compensate for climate damage already suffered in vulnerable countries. This discussion also affects the climate ambition that can be agreed upon at the summit. While there is now an agreement that the fund should exist, the question of who pays and under what conditions remains unanswered.
“This is unacceptable to the global south; they will only agree to more ambition if their concerns about climate damage are taken seriously. In any case, we are clear: the scale of climate damage is growing enormously and therefore the biggest polluters must make additional structural contributions to address it.”
Greens/EFA demands include:
Global phase-out of all fossil fuels
End subsidies for fossil fuels
Treaty on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels
Significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
Tripling the share of renewable energies
Doubling energy efficiency
Establishment of the fund to support climate-related loss and damage and provide it with fresh money
The exclusion of representatives of fossil fuel industries from the climate conference along the lines of the World Health Organisation’s exclusion of the tobacco industry
Release of human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor and all political prisoners in the United Arab Emirates
Ahead of the Dubai event, BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer said: “European business stands firmly behind the Paris Agreement.”
He added, “However, with the EU counting for 7% of current global CO2 emissions and only 4-5% by 2030, it is critical that all G20 countries agree to similarly ambitious 2030 targets.
“They must also commit to implementing concrete, transparent, and reliable transformation measures.
“Businesses are indispensable partners and solution providers for making this deep transformation happen successfully. No industry or sector that is adapting to a net-zero ambition should be excluded from active engagement.”
BusinessEurope has just published 6 priority actions for COP28:
Increasing global ambition and action towards climate neutrality
Scaling up international climate finance
Strengthening climate adaptation efforts
Operationalizing global carbon market mechanisms
Securing engagement with all industries and sectors
Closing carbon cycles
