Cop 26 not enough, European Parliament says

The European Commission today defended the agreement reached at the UN Cop 26 climate conference in Glasgow before a European Parliament majority that is keen on seeing even tougher EU climate action.

"We need to look at our own commitment for 2030 that's aligned with 2°C. But it's not aligned with 1.5°C," said environment committee chair Pascal Canfin, speaking for the liberal Renew group and referring to efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. He called on parliament to align EU legislation put forward by the commission in July — which is designed to ensure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cuts in the bloc of 55pc by 2030 compared with 1990 — with the 1.5°C target. And he wants forthcoming legislation strictly aligned with the 1.5°C goal.

"This is not the case for the methane strategy. You need to rework it. You at the commission have several weeks to do this," Canfin said, pointing to the forthcoming commission proposal for a regulation on methane emissions reduction in the energy sector, expected to be published on 14 December.

Canfin also warned parliament may not approve the commission's new list of natural gas projects if it is not fully aligned with the requirements of climate neutrality and green transition. The proposal on EU-favoured energy infrastructure projects put forward by the commission is "absolutely not in line with 1.5°C", he said. "I strongly ask you to revise this list or parliament should oppose it," he said.

Canfin led parliament's delegation to Cop 26 with Peter Liese, a German member of the parliament's environment committee, as vice-chair.

"There's a massive problem. It [the Cop 26 agreement] is not enough in terms of ambition for 2030. The largest emitter in the world, China, wants to increase its emissions until 2030," said Liese, speaking for parliament's largest political group, the centre-right EPP.

"If it comes about that we are not going to reach the [2030 climate] goal and China maintains its irresponsibly bad goal then we still need protection against carbon leakage," Liese said.

Support for tougher climate measures also came from the leader of the parliament's centre-left S&D group, Iratxe Garcia, albeit promising socialists will "fight" to ensure greater social measures when examining the commission's July legal proposals.

"We can't change our habits if we are not able to prevent the most vulnerable classes who pay the green transition," Garcia said.

The EU's July climate and energy package measures are "posture" and parliament will have to beat "resistance", notably from industry, Greens co-president Philippe Lamberts said.

A different tone was taken by the conservative ECR group. Polish ECR member of the parliament's environment committee, Anna Zalewska, said one of the first effects of the Glasgow agreement was to push the price of EU emissions trading system (ETS) allowances higher and that makes commission executive vice-president in charge of climate action, Frans Timmermans, "happy". She called for a full review of the legal measures to reach a GHG cut of 55pc by 2030. And Zalewska pointed to Germany as a country historically responsible for CO2 emissions that is now telling others to cut their emissions.

"What are you going to say to miners in [the Polish region of] Silesia if you just say stay put, don't change. There's no future in coal. We need to change," Timmermans said.

Timmermans defended "clear progress" at Glasgow with the first global agreement on limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5°C compared with pre-industrial levels and completion of the rule book setting out detailed guidelines for implementing the Paris climate agreement.

"Ten days before we began the mantra was still below 2°C. And some countries even challenged that Paris ever spoke of 1.5°C. And countries that do not have nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in line with this 1.5°C target will have to come back next year to deliver the required update," Timmermans said.

He also noted the first ever global agreement to "phase down" coal and fossil fuel subsidies. But international climate finance still fell short of its commitment to provide $100bn/yr by some $20bn. "We may reach the goal next year instead of 2023," Timmermans said . But he admitted further action will be difficult. "What needs to be done is bloody hard," he said.

By Dafydd ab Iago