The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the 2017 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany (COP23).
The resolution was tabled by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and by the EPP, S&D, ECR, ALDE, GUE/NGL, Greens/EFA and EFDD groups.
It sets out the European Parliament's position for the next Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC, COP23, taking place 6-17 November 2017 in Bonn. Parliament stated it looked forward to clarification of the structure of the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue during COP23. The EU should play a proactive role in this first facilitative dialogue. The Commission and Member States should submit further GHG reduction commitments that go beyond current commitments under the Paris Agreement and contribute suitably to closing the mitigation gap in line with EU capabilities.
Paris Agreement: Members recalled the commitments made under the Paris Agreement to limit the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 ºC above pre-industrial levels and to further pursue limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 ºC, as well as the aim of achieving a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHG (‘net zero emissions’) in the second half of this century. However, they acknowledged that current pledges are not yet sufficient to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. All parties, especially all G20 nations, should step up their efforts and update their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by 2020, following the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue. Parliament stressed the importance of implementing the agreement through EU legislation, including swift adoption of the EU Climate Action Regulation and the revision of the EU ETS Directive, as well as of ratcheting up the EU’s goals and policy instruments. The Commission was urged to prepare by COP24 a mid-century zero emissions strategy for the EU, providing a cost-efficient pathway towards reaching the net zero emissions goal adopted in the Paris Agreement.
Parliament expressed its disappointment with the announcement made by US President Donald Trump of his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, stating that this decision represents a step backwards. However, Members welcomed the strong responses from governments around the world and their continued support for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The Commission was asked to examine the effectiveness and legality of additional measures to protect industries at risk of carbon leakage, for example a carbon border tax adjustment and consumption charge, in particular in respect of products coming from countries that do not fulfil their commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Climate finance: the resolution welcomed the steadily increasing level of EU climate finance, but stressed that further efforts are needed. Parliament called on governments and public and private financial institutions, including banks, pension funds and insurance firms, to make an ambitious commitment to aligning lending and investment practices with the global average temperature target of well below 2 °C, and divesting from fossil fuels, including by phasing out export credits for fossil fuel investments. It wanted to see concrete commitments to delivering additional sources of climate finance, including by introducing a financial transaction tax, setting aside some EU ETS emission allowances in the period 2021-2030, and allocating revenue from EU and international measures on aviation and shipping emissions to international climate finance and the Green Climate Fund.
ETS: Members welcomed the development of emissions trading systems worldwide, including 18 emissions trading systems in operation across four continents, accounting for 40 % of global GDP. They encouraged the Commission to promote links between the EU ETS and other emissions trading systems, with the aim of creating international carbon market mechanisms so as to increase climate ambition while helping to reduce the risk of carbon leakage by levelling the playing field.
Parliament called for more ambition and underlined that insufficient progress had been made in GHG emission reductions in the transport and agriculture sectors with respect to the 2020 targets,
It noted the 2016 ICAO Assembly decision on the establishment of a Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), but expressed disappointment that ICAO did not agree on emission reductions with the introduction of CORSIA, instead focusing mainly on offsets.
In addition, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) was urged to develop a global mechanism in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement by setting an ambitious emission reduction target and drawing up a concrete timetable.
Role of the European Parliament: since Parliament must give its consent to international agreements and plays a central role in the domestic implementation of the Paris Agreement as co-legislator, Members stated that Parliament should be well integrated into the EU delegation. They expected that it be allowed to attend EU coordination meetings in Bonn and be guaranteed access to all preparatory documents from the moment negotiations begin.