International Climate Negotiations

Working towards a fair and ambitious global Climate deal

The EU has a leading role to play in securing an international climate agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The adoption of a negotiations roadmap at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties meeting in Bali (COP13) in December 2007 paved the way for an international deal at the meeting of the COP15 in Copenhagen in December 2009. Regrettably, COP15 did not produce an agreement and the following COPs only managed to save the negotiation process, leaving the most pressing issue - namely the necessity for the world to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions so global warming can be limited to 2°C - completely aside.

Since the COP18 in Doha, the focus is now on the next three years, which will be crucial for ushering in an ambitious global climate treaty to be signed at COP21 in 2015. The Greens/EFA group are therefore pushing the EU internally to make sure that it can play a strong leading role on the international stage and to ensure that it can push for an ambitious and fair global climate agreement to be agreed by all parties and implemented by 2020 under the auspices of the UN.

To be truly effective and fair, the future international agreement will need to set out strong and fair emissions reductions, a guaranteed, agreed and fixed amount of funding for adaptation, and prevent deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries.