EU ministers have agreed a general negotiating mandate for the UN Cop 29 climate conference, calling for a new climate finance goal, but without mentioning a concrete amount or range of figures for this.
The main point of the EU's mandate remains that of obtaining an "ambitious and balanced" agreement at Cop 29, to be held on 11-22 November in Baku, Azerbaijan. The deal should still hold out hope of maintaining global temperatures within 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels in the "light of the best available science", according to the EU position. The bloc's environment and climate ministers want a Baku text to move "us all forward towards long-term resilience".
The text sticks to language in a previous draft, underlining the need for "transitioning away from fossil fuels", tripling renewable energy capacity, and doubling annual energy efficiency gains by 2030 — all points agreed at last year's Cop 28.
Countries, and especially major economies, should significantly enhance their national climate plans — known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions peaking before 2025, EU ministers said. NDCs should contain "economy wide absolute emission reduction targets" for all GHGs, they added.
The EU will push for a global approach to carbon pricing. The bloc will "encourage" all jurisdictions to introduce or improve their own domestic carbon pricing mechanisms.
And ministers stressed the need to "explore" innovative options for widening the sources of climate finance, including "carbon pricing, levies for implementing climate action" and the "scaling down of harmful incentives". That mirrors language in EU finance ministers' conclusions on international climate finance.
Finance will be the key topic at Cop 29, where countries must finalise the details of a new climate finance goal. Funding needs for this are "in the space of… trillions" of dollars, Azerbaijan's lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev said this week. But a "realistic goal for what the public sector could directly provide and mobilise seems to be in the hundreds of billions", he said.
The Cop 29 presidency hosted a series of 'pre-Cop' meetings on 8-12 October, including ministerial dialogues. Some progress was made, the presidency said. Ministers "must now return to their capitals to secure the mandates they need for the breakthroughs they must deliver. There is no excuse for anyone to arrive at Cop 29 without clear political support to make progress", incoming Cop 29 president Mukhtar Babayev said this week.
