UN Climate Action Summit: We need a faster pace of Action in Europe

Brussels, 23 September 2019

 

Global leaders, including European Council President, Donald Tusk and European Commissioner on Climate Action & Energy, Miguel Arias-Cañete will arrive in New York next Monday, 23 September for the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit.

 

“This is an opportunity for all governments to answer the global youth movement and all of the strikers and marcher’s calls for a much stronger and rapid response to tackle the climate emergency’’ says Floris Faber, ACT Alliance EU Representative.

 

UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres has called upon all world leaders to arrive at the Summit with the clear commitment to increase their 2030 climate targets, in order to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. The Paris Agreement states that countries must present their 2030 climate targets to the UNFCCC by 2020.

 

It is imperative that all EU leaders come to the UN Summit clearly stating their commitment and support for a process to significantly increase the EU’s 2030 climate target to at least 65%; thereby bringing it in line with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal.

 

“European countries must seize the opportunity to avert, minimise and address climate impacts ahead of the 2020 deadline, and act boldly to provide additional resources to tackle loss & damage and scale-up climate finance” says Floris Faber, ACT Alliance EU Representative.

 

Tackling climate change is a global effort, and if developing countries are to be able to increase their climate targets and enhance their capability to tackle climate change, it is crucial for all countries, including European countries to scale-up climate finance, especially for loss & damage and adaptation.

 

Both the Global Commission on Adaptation and the OECD recently released reports that highlight the inadequate amount of predictable grants for developing countries to face the challenge of climate change. Most notably, there’s a severe lack of climate finance for adaptation and limited data on loss & damage finance.

 

“At the UN Summit, it is vital that all countries pledge to at least double their contributions to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which would go a long way to fulfilling their promises to mobilise $100 billion annually” says Floris Faber, ACT Alliance EU Representative.

 

This September’s summit is one of the few remaining opportunities for Governments to meet and agree to commit to new, higher targets to combat climate impacts ahead of 2020.

 

Importantly, momentum to increase the EU’s 2030 climate target is growing. The European Parliament, the European Commission President-elect, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and an increasing number of EU governments, including the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia and Nordic countries have all called for the EU target to be raised to 55% emissions cuts compared, to 1990 levels.

 

“Between September 20 to 27, millions of people worldwide will show up for over a week of demonstrations. It’s high time for EU leaders to heed these calls and to significantly enhance EU domestic, and international climate action” says Floris Faber, ACT Alliance EU Representative.

 

 

Key dates

 

Contact

Leia Achampong, ACT Alliance EU, Climate Justice Policy Officer, leia.achampong@actalliance.eu, +32 2 234 56 68/60