Don’t make ‘disappointing’ retreat on climate, COP30 CEO urges EU

PARIS: Europe is “absolutely vital” to the fight against global warming and its leadership must not waver as climate ambition backslides elsewhere, the CEO of November´s COP30 summit in Brazil told AFP.

In an interview in Paris, Ana Toni urged the European Union to unite around a strong emissions reduction target as the 27-nation bloc squabbles over its level of climate ambition. The European Commission has proposed cutting emissions by 90 percent by 2040 compared to 1990 levels but some member states argue the figure is too high, delaying its approval.

Brussels is pushing to revamp its economic and defence competitiveness in the aftermath of Donald Trump´s election, and climate advocates fear the EU´s green goals could suffer as priorities are realigned. The debate is being closely watched as countries finalise their own climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), which are supposed to be submitted to the UN before the COP30 conference in the Amazonian city of Belem.

The EU has been leading the climate debate. It is absolutely vital that the EU continues leading, especially in the geopolitics that we have. It is even more important now than it was before, and it would be extremely disappointing if they weakened that promise of getting both the 90 percent in 2040 -- as proposed by the Commission, which we fully support -- as well as having a very ambitious NDC for 2035.”