Africa: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans and High-Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell Met with COP28 President Designate Dr Sultan Al-Jaber

7 June 2023
allAfrica.com
press release

Today in Brussels, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, and High-Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell met with COP28 President Designate Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber to discuss preparations for COP28, the 2023 UNFCCC climate conference, which will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 30 November to 12 December. Dr. Sultan was joined by HE Lana Nusseibeh, Assistant Minister for Political Affairs and recently appointed Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UAE to the European Union.

They reconfirmed today their commitment to work together to facilitate the highest possible ambition at this year's UNFCCC conference, and agreed on the importance of several critical elements that could frame an ambitious COP28 outcome:

  • Urging all Parties to align their national efforts with the shared commitment to achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement, including pursuing efforts to keep the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach, in line with the commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow and COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh and the findings of the latest science from the IPCC;
  • Ensuring that the completion of the first Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement informs climate action going forward to set out pathways to achieve emissions reductions, enhanced resilience and finance flows that are aligned with our climate neutrality objectives and low-emission climate-resilient development;
  • Progress towards a just energy transition that includes a scaling-up of renewables in particular, and policies and investments to transition towards energy systems free of unabated fossil fuels, while ensuring energy accessibility, affordability and security;
  • Significant progress on enhanced adaptation action that builds resilience and reduces vulnerability, with a robust outcome on the Global Goal on Adaptation at COP28;  
  • Operationalisation of the funding arrangements and the fund to address loss and damage and assist the needs of the most vulnerable, ensuring availability, adequacy and predictability of sources and solutions;
  • Supporting the full implementation of the USD100bn delivery plan so that the goal can be met in 2023, acknowledging the strong action from the EU and its role together with its member states and the European Investment Bank as the leading contributor to this goal, and noting the important mobilisation of other G7 members which is essential to meeting the target;  
  • Ensuring that all countries remain ambitious in supporting climate action, particularly in vulnerable countries, including by doubling adaptation finance from 2019 levels as early as possible, and by 2025 as committed at COP26, and delivering on commitments made on existing facilities, such as the Green Climate Fund;
  • Laying the groundwork for a larger mobilisation of climate finance from all sources that meet the needs of developing countries to embark on the transition.  

The COP28 Presidency and the Commission agreed to work together on multiple areas to drive a just energy transition and deliver concrete actions that leave no one behind. In line with a 1.5 degree scenario, together, they will work to ensure maximum support among parties at COP28 on global 2030 targets for the tripling of renewable energy and doubling of energy efficiency, as well as promote the doubling of clean hydrogen by unlocking global cross-border trade. These targets would support the transition towards energy systems free of unabated fossil fuels. In addition, they look forward to advancing reforms to existing IFIs and identifying innovative mechanisms that will accelerate climate action and unlock private finance flow to emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).

The Commission expressed its support for the initiative of the Incoming COP28 Presidency to organize the first-ever health day and climate-health ministerial.

The European Commission and the Incoming COP28 Presidency intend to maintain close coordination at the political and technical level in the coming months, towards the delivery of a highly ambitious outcome in Dubai. They highlighted the importance of upcoming political milestones to advance this objective. These include the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact on 22-23 June, the Ministerial on Climate Action on 13-14 July, the G20 Energy Ministers Meeting on 22 July, the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Ministers Meeting on 28 July,   the G20 Leaders Summit on 9-10 September, the UNSG's Climate Summit on 20 September, the IEA International Climate and Energy Summit on 2 October, and multiple regional political fora around the world.

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