EU environment ministers to discuss climate package, electricity prices

  • 2021-10-06
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - The environment ministers of the European Union will meet in Luxembourg on Wednesday to discuss common positions for the meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), COP26, and to exchange views on the climate package and seek solutions to rising electricity prices.

Progress to date in tackling climate change will be reviewed at the COP26 in Glasgow in November and hopefully decisions will also be taken on issues on which agreement has not yet been reached, spokespeople for the Estonian Ministry of the Environment said.

According to Minister of the Environment Tonis Molder, it is important for Estonia that the Environment Council reaches an agreement on a common timeframe when the parties to the Convention must set national goals in the future. A common timeframe is important to monitor whether we are on the right track to meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement or whether there is a need to increase national contributions. Reaching an agreement within such a common timeframe is a precondition for the adoption and entry into force of the implementing rules of the Paris Agreement.

"If the EU does not have a joint strong position on the common timeframe for making national contributions, this will prevent us from taking an active role in the negotiations. However, this is essential in order to set an example to the world and to encourage all countries to set both long-term and intermediate goals to ensure that the goals of the Paris Agreement are met. To give developing countries the confidence to take the necessary steps, the EU must also play a constructive role in discussions on climate finance," Molder said.

The EU, together with its member states, is the world's leading donor of development aid and the largest contributor to climate finance, providing at least a third. Funding for activities needed to meet climate goals has more than doubled globally since 2013. Other developed countries must also be called upon to increase international climate finance and private sector contribution must be encouraged in the financing of developing countries.

Other topics on the Council's agenda are the exchange of views on the "Fit for 55" climate package and the new European forestry strategy. The theme of the ministerial lunch will be the global biodiversity framework. Another issue several EU countries have raised is electricity prices, in the discussion of which Estonia also intends to speak.