Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Paris climate deal architect ‘disappointed’ at EU summit

1216745
1216745
minus
plus

Brussels: EU leaders meeting in Romania missed an opportunity to act on growing public demand for stronger action against climate change, an architect of the Paris agreement said Friday.


Laurence Tubiana, who now heads the European Climate Foundation, said the lack of ambition on climate was all the more glaring at a summit touting efforts to tackle future challenges.


“I think it is a missed opportunity,” Tubiana told journalists in Brussels following Thursday’s summit in Sibiu. “I’m really disappointed with Sibiu.”


Tubiana said Germany, the European Union’s biggest economy, is “dragging its feet” on demands from other EU countries to ensure Europe moves to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.


Speaking in Sibiu on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stopped short of taking up the call by eight EU countries to meet the target.


“Because our targets for 2050 differ, I have not yet been able to fully support this initiative,” Merkel told reporters.


She said the “first step” was for the EU to meet its pledge to reduce its carbon emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.


The eight countries appealing for zero emissions are France, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, according to a copy.


At a Brussels summit in March, French President Emmanuel Macron complained fellow leaders had failed to pursue the 2050 target in line with their pledges to the Paris accord.


Tubiana said there was a “dissonance” between the attitude of government officials and the demand from a public increasingly concerned about the impact of climate change.


However, she said there was a “shift in the centre of gravity” in the debate as mainstream political parties in Germany and elsewhere feel the need to forge positions on global warming.


She also said economic powerhouse China’s push for new technologies like electric cars was putting competitive pressure on EU firms to do the same.


Tubiana hoped for a new opportunity for leaders to step up their climate ambition at the June summit in Brussels, following May’s European Parliament elections.


As for the Paris climate deal she helped craft, Tubiana said “it sticks,” adding there has been “no domino effect” since US President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord.


The 195-nation UN pact sealed in Paris calls for capping the rise in Earth’s temperature at “well under” two degrees Celsius, and 1.50C if possible.


Meanwhile, ahead of European Parliament elections on May 23-26, the 27 leaders also had a first look at assigning the bloc’s most powerful jobs later this year.


“In 15 days, some 400 million Europeans will choose between a project... to build Europe further or a project to destroy, deconstruct Europe and return to nationalism,” Macron told the gathering.


“climate, protection of borders and a model of growth, a social model... is what I really want for the coming years.”


On climate change, France and eight other EU countries proposed getting to “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions” by 2050 and the bloc will now fight about how to frame and finance any transition to more environmentally-friendly policies.


— AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon