On the US-China climate announcement: Joint Statement by the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker

EU News 456/2014

European Council
The President
STATEMENT
EUCO 248/14
PRESSE 582
PR PCE 217
Brussels, 12 November 2014

We welcome the announcement today by the Presidents of the United States and China on their respective post-2020 actions on climate change. This comes a head of the G20 Summit in Brisbane, and well in advance of the Conference of the Parties 21 in Paris next year.

This announcement shows that the call by EU Leaders on 24 October to other countries to come forward quickly with their intended greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets is being answered.

The European Union agreed in October ambitious targets for 2030 with a legally binding reduction of CO2 emissions of at least 40%, increases of renewable energy and energy efficiency of at least 27% and a boost of the internal European energy market through a boost of interconnection. The announcements to date cover around half of the global emissions. We urge others, especially the G20 members, to announce their targets in the first half of 2015 and transparently. Only then we can assess together if our collective efforts will allow us to fulfil the goal of keeping global temperature increases well below 2 degrees Celsius.

The EU expects these targets to be part of a longer range effort to transition to low carbon economies. Now it will be important to maintain the level of ambition and aim for a credible and durable global climate agreement in Paris next year.

In the multilateral UN negotiation process, Lima is the next milestone and we look forward to engaging with all our partners. The clock is ticking. It's time to move to action.

Source and additional information:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/145718.pdf

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