Climate diplomacy

2017/2272(INI)

The European Parliament adopted by 488 votes to 113 with 12 abstentions, a resolution on climate diplomacy.

Members stressed the increasingly urgent nature of climate action and the fact that the fight against climate change required a joint effort at international level. They urged the Commission and the Member States to continuously facilitate multilateral discourse, as it constitutes a collective responsibility towards the entire planet, for the current and future generations;.

In these circumstances, climate diplomacy can be understood as a form of targeted foreign policy to promote climate action through reaching out to other actors, cooperating on specific climate-related issues, building strategic partnerships and strengthening relations between state and non-state actors, including major contributors to global pollution.

Implementation of the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030: reaffirming the EU’s commitment to the Paris Agreement and to the UN Agenda 2030, Parliament stressed the need for an ambitious EU climate policy as well the necessity of developing by the end of 2018 an ambitious and coordinated long-term net-zero carbon strategy for 2050. Regretting the US President’s announcement of his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, Members reaffirmed that the EU has a responsibility to assume a leading role in global climate action.

They stressed that, in the context of its foreign policy, the Union should:

·         develop capacities to monitor climate change-related risks, including crisis prevention and conflict sensitivity;

·         take multilateral measures to protect people who live in coastal areas or in small island states and who are particularly at risk due to melting ice caps and rising sea levels;

·         support the launch of discussions at UN level to address the issue of migration in vulnerable areas and to provide a concrete response to the population movements that are expected to occur as a result of climate change.

Any Union initiative in the field of the environment should be based on the legislative powers provided for in the Treaties.

Strengthening the EU capacity for climate diplomacy: in order to better reflect the increased engagement in climate diplomacy, Members called for an increased allocation of human and financial resources in the EEAS and the Commission. The Commission and the Member States were urged to increase climate diplomacy-related spending in the next multiannual financial framework (MFF), to approve earmarking of at least 30 % for climate-related spending, as advocated by Parliament in its resolution of 14 March 2018 on the next MFF. The EU budget as a whole should be aligned to the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Members stressed the need to:

  • develop a comprehensive strategy for EU climate diplomacy and to integrate climate into all fields of EU external action, including trade, development cooperation and humanitarian aid;
  • create the enabling environments to reorient capital flows towards sustainable investment;
  • raise international awareness for climate change through coordinated communication strategies and activities to increase public and political support; 
  • take into account the EU’s science diplomacy as part of the global strategy for climate diplomacy, boosting and financing climate change research.

Parliament invited the Commission and the EEAS to develop a long-term vision in order to put forward a joint communication setting out their understanding of EU climate diplomacy as well as a strategic approach for the EU’s climate diplomacy activities.

Members highlighted the key role played by parliamentary diplomacy in the fight against climate change.

The fight against climate change as a driver of international cooperation: Parliament called on the Commission to integrate the climate change dimension into international trade and investment agreements and to make ratification and implementation of the Paris Agreement a condition for future trade agreements. It recommended the development and systematic inclusion of a mandatory fundamental climate change clause in international agreements.

The resolution highlighted the responsibility incumbent on the EU and other affluent countries to show greater solidarity towards the vulnerable states, mainly in the Global South and islands. It urged the Union to:

  • support the less affluent countries in their efforts to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and improve access to affordable renewable energy;
  • deepen its strategic cooperation at the state and non-state level by conducting "zero carbon" dialogues and development partnerships with emerging economies;
  • play a leading role in creating international and regional partnerships on carbon markets;
  • actively promote at international level a proactive policy to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, including through the establishment of emission limits and immediate measures to reduce emissions in the international maritime and aviation sectors.

Lastly, Parliament considered it important for the EU to keep up its efforts to re-engage the US in multilateral cooperation on climate action, urging the US to respect the Paris Agreement without jeopardising its level of ambition; considers that parliamentary dialogue and cooperation with local authorities are key to this end.