EU climate and energy diplomacy conclusions “strong statement on the road to COP28” – climate envoy

Germany’s special envoy for international climate action Jennifer Morgan welcomed the climate and energy diplomacy priorities adopted by the EU Council yesterday (9 March) as a “strong statement on the road to COP28,” the UN climate change conference taking place in Dubai later this year. In a message on Twitter, Morgan praised the “far-reaching conclusions” on issues like financing, just transition, security and the energy transition. The conclusions by EU member state governments reaffirmed that EU climate and energy diplomacy is a core component of the bloc’s foreign policy, the Council wrote in a press release. The text, titled “Bolstering EU climate and energy diplomacy in a critical decade,” says that the shift towards a climate neutral economy will require the global phase-out of unabated fossil fuels and a peak in their consumption “already in the near term,” and said that natural gas is still needed in the transition. “The EU will systematically promote and call for a global move towards energy systems free of unabated fossil fuels well ahead of 2050,” it says.

Reuters reported that some countries are hoping this year's COP28 summit could clinch a global deal on phasing out CO2-emitting fossil fuels - not only coal, as agreed at previous UN climate talks, but also oil and gas. More than 80 countries, including the EU, supported an Indian proposal to do this at last year's summit, but Saudi Arabia and other oil and gas-rich nations opposed it, the news agency wrote.