Resolution on the UN Climate Change Conference 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28)
The European Parliament adopted by 462 votes to 134, with 30 abstentions, a resolution on the UN Climate Change Conference 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (COP28).
COP28 in Dubai and the first global stocktake
Parliament called on the Commission and the Member States to use all diplomatic channels prior to the conference to engage with all Parties to scale up their short-, medium- and long-term climate targets and accompanying policies, and to raise the level of ambition of their nationally determined contributions to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C, in accordance with the Glasgow Climate Pact.
The resolution underlined that the process of global stocktaking is a central element of the Paris Agreement and that the first global stocktake is a key moment for enhancing the collective ambition of climate action and support. Parliament expects all Parties to fully engage in the global stocktake in order to strengthen commitments in line with the Paris Agreement.
Parties are called on to establish a comprehensive system for monitoring transport and energy poverty, and to exert every effort to ensure that the proportion of individuals experiencing transport and energy poverty does not increase.
Members stressed that the global stocktake outputs and related COP28 decisions must propose concrete, actionable and specific processes to get on track with the Paris Agreement goals.
Participation of stakeholders at COP28
Recalling the importance of the full involvement of all Parties in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decision-making processes, Parliament called on the COP28 presidency and future presidencies to explore additional ways to ensure the effective and meaningful participation of developing countries and least developed countries’ delegates and to allocate additional resources to this.
Parliament also called on the UNFCCC, all Parties and the authorities of the United Arab Emirates to ensure equitable access to COP28 and full and unrestricted participation, including with access to relevant documents, at COP28 for all citizens and civil society organisations, in particular those representing the most vulnerable communities. Strongly deploring the numerous cases of censorship, intimidation, harassment and surveillance of members of civil society organisations, as well as the wave of arrests and detentions, that took place around COP27 in Egypt, Parliament called for strong measures by the UNFCCC and host countries to protect delegates and participants from harassment and intimidation at COP28 and future COPs.
Conflict of interest, transparency and integrity
The resolution highlighted that more than 630 fossil fuel lobbyists were accredited attendees at COP27, constituting an increase of more than 25 % compared to COP26. Parliament called for the UNFCCC and the Parties to ensure that the decision-making process is protected from interests that run counter to the goal of the Paris Agreement.
International climate finance and sustainable finance
Parliament stressed that in its conclusions on the preparations for the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 28), the Council renewed the commitment made by the Union and its Member States to continue scaling up their international climate finance towards the developed countries’ goal of mobilising at least USD 100 billion per year as soon as possible and through to 2025 from a wide variety of sources. It underlined the need for continued and increased contributions and called for a dedicated EU public finance mechanism that provides additional and adequate support towards delivering the EU’s fair share of international climate finance goals.
Regretting that fossil energy subsidies in the Union have remained stable since 2008, totalling around EUR 55-58 billion per year and corresponding to around one third of all energy subsidies in the Union, Parliament reiterated its call to end, as a matter of urgency, all direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies in the EU as soon as possible and by 2025 at the latest, and other environmentally harmful subsidies as soon as possible and by 2027 at the latest.
Climate and environmental crisis
Parliament emphasised the importance of protecting, conserving and restoring biodiversity and ecosystems, in particular soils, forests, agricultural ecosystems, freshwater bodies, oceans and other carbon-rich ecosystems, and to manage natural resources sustainably in order to enhance nature-based climate change mitigation and build resilience, which are necessary for achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement. It firmly believes that the Paris Agreement goals cannot be met without restoring nature and called for the swift conclusion of an EU agreement on the Nature Restoration Law.
Members welcomed the fact that 122 Parties have become signatories to the Global Methane Pledge and urged all signatories to ensure that they reduce methane emissions within their territories by at least 30 % from 2020 levels by 2030 and to adopt national measures to achieve this aim.
Climate change and development
Members called for the EU and its Member States to deliver on the existing commitments towards developing countries on the provision of climate finance and to maintain a high level of ambition in relation to climate action support for developing countries in the lead up to, during and after COP28. It called on the European institutions to implement an integrated approach to the SDGs, which provide a universal compass for people’s prosperity, and to protect the planet.
Role of the European Parliament at COP28
Parliament considered that the European Parliament should be an integral part of the EU delegation at COP28, given that it must give its consent to international agreements and plays a central role in the domestic implementation of the Paris Agreement as one of the EU’s co-legislators. It expects, therefore, to be allowed to attend EU coordination meetings at COP28 in Dubai and to be guaranteed access to all preparatory documents.