COP26: EU helps deliver outcome to keep the Paris Agreement targets alive
At the end of the COP26 UN Climate Conference today, the European Commission supported the consensus reached by over 190 countries after two weeks of intense negotiations. COP26 resulted in the completion of the Paris Agreement rulebook and kept the Paris targets alive, giving us a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
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Under the Paris Agreement, 195 countries set a target to keep average global temperature change below 2°C and as close as possible to 1.5°C. Before COP26, the planet was on course for a dangerous 2.7°C of global warming. Based on new announcements made during the Conference, experts estimate that we are now on a path to between 1.8°C and 2.4°C of warming. In today's conclusions, Parties have now agreed to revisit their commitments, as necessary, by the end of 2022 to put us on track for 1.5°C of warming, maintaining the upper end of ambition under the Paris Agreement.
In order to deliver on these promises, COP26 also agreed for the first time to accelerate efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and recognised the need for support towards a just transition.
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New EU Commitments
On 1-2 November, President Ursula von der Leyen represented the Commission at the World Leaders Summit which opened COP26. The President pledged €1 billion in funding for the Global Forests Finance Pledge on 1 November. On 2 November, the EU announced a Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa and officially launched the Global Methane Pledge, a joint EU-US initiative which has mobilised over 100 countries to cut their collective methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030, compared to 2020 levels. President von der Leyen also kicked off the EU-Catalyst partnership with Bill Gates and EIB President Werner Hoyer.
From 7 to 13 November, Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans led the EU negotiating team in Glasgow. On 9 November, Mr Timmermans announced a new pledge of €100 million in finance for the Climate Adaptation Fund, by far the biggest pledge for the Adaptation Fund made by donors at COP26. It comes on top of significant contributions already announced by Member States, and also confirms the EU's supporting role to the informal Champions Group on Adaptation Finance.