EU Environment Ministers Discussed Climate Change Actions in Sofia

The biggest challenges in the international process in the climate negotiations in 2018 and the EU's actions to deal with them were discussed on the second day of the informal meeting of EU environment ministers in Sofia. At the UN Conference on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland, at the end of the year, agreement should be reached on the progress towards delivering a solid set of rules for the future climate governance regime (the 'Paris Agreement Work Programme'), ensuring that the parallel processes foreseen at the Committee of the Parties (COP), namely, the political phase of the Talanoa Dialogue, the pre-2020 stocktake and the High Level event on climate finance are also successful and constructive.

"The current year 2018 is extremely dynamic and busy. The ongoing preparatory talks and work are aimed at achieving the ambitions for the upcoming COP24 in Poland," said the Minister of Environment and Water Neno Dimov at the opening of the session. “We expect COP24 to reach agreement on the Paris Agreement Work Programme and to ensure the success and constructiveness of the parallel processes provided by the Conference of the Parties. These include the political phase of the Talanoa Dialogue, the pre-2020 stocktake, and the High Level event on climate finance. Last but not least, the next Bonn Climate Change Session in two weeks is due to make serious progress on details and to review the technical level of the Talanoa Dialogue”, said Minister Dimov.

He announced that, in order to guide the discussion, the Bulgarian Presidency prepared a background document with two questions:

• What are the biggest challenges in the process during 2018 and what are the tools the EU has to address these, e.g. in terms of forging a progressive “rulebook-alliance”?

• What types of deliverables can the EU envisage in the priority areas of developing countries, notably climate finance and pre-2020 action, and what would be the most relevant sequence?

The EU and its Member States are global frontrunners in driving decisive modernisation and innovation in the economy in order to achieve low-carbon development. The EU has put in place ambitious internal policies in the field of climate and energy, with which the EU ensures that the 2030 goals will be met.

The stocktakes on pre-2020 action at COP24 and COP25 will provide a possibility to tell a positive story of pre-2020 implementation by all Parties, highlighting what has already been achieved and sharing best practices.

The EU has put in place an ambitious mix of pre-2020 targets and structural policies in the field of climate and energy. Our actions have already resulted in the EU exceeding our 2020 target to reduce emissions by 20% from 1990. By 2016, we had already cut them by 23%, and we are on course for a 26% reduction.

The EU remains committed to the collective goal of mobilising $100bn a year in climate finance by 2020 for climate action in developing countries, from a variety of sources, and continuing to significantly increase adaptation finance.

The EU’s mobilisation of climate finance has systematically and coherently increased. Total contributions from the EU and its member states amounted to €20.2bn in 2016, a significant increase compared to 2015 (from to €17.6bn in 2015).

Source: eu2018bg.bg

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