2023-11-29 16:17:37
The Climate Commissioner will be the face of Europe during the COP28 negotiations in Dubai. He pleads for emerging countries to contribute more financially.
At COP28 which opens in Dubai, the first notes will be played by the leaders, responsible for providing momentum to the two weeks of negotiations: for the European Commission, it is therefore Ursula von der Leyen who will give the key note. But it’s the new Climate Commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, who will be the face of Europe when the negotiations get tough. The Dutchman will travel to the emirate for the ministerial segment of the second week, from December 6 to the finish.
During a meeting by videoconference with a handful of European journalists, he was asked regarding his confidence in the presidency to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion: the international press has just documented the desire of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ‘use the event to seal gas and oil contracts. Does this create a problem of trust with the presidency of this COP? A diplomat, Hoekstra does not linger: “Climate discussions should only focus on one thing, and that is the climate. Which is clear, and that goes for the UAE, the Chinese, the Americans, the Europeans, everyone world: the world is watching.”
Run faster
The main thing is therefore what the final agreement will or will not contain, underlines Hoekstra. “The bar is very high. Scientists are extremely worried on the time we have lost in recent years: we really need to make this conference a new Paris moment. The direction we have is generally good, but we need to run faster.”
“We can still offer the next generations a future at +1.5°C if everyone takes action.”
The commissioner will go to Dubai to defend the conviction that “we can still offer the next generations a future at +1.5°C if everyone takes action. While the sum of current promises leads rather to a world of 3 °C, the European Union considers that it is doing its part, and that its own progress report is an invitation to other major emitters to raise their level of ambition: it targets -55% emissions for 2030, and the Commission estimates that the full implementation of its policies would achieve -57%.
The former Dutch Minister of Finance also places great emphasis on the balance to be found in the disbursement of resources, whether for financing climate action as such or for supplying the “calamities” fund, for loss and damage in vulnerable countries, which COP27 decided to create. “Financing and loss and damage are not a simple chapter of negotiation: it has become the equivalent of trust, a facilitator or a brake on our ability to continue,” underlines the commissioner. The European Union is expected to make announcements in Dubai on how it might fund this new envelope, but Hoekstra does not provide a figure. “The information I have is informal and confidential, I have to be a little careful.” He also does not comment on the overall amount that this fund might or should reach.
“Funding has become the equivalent of trust: an enabler or a barrier to our ability to proceed.”
Within the United Nations, the sharing of responsibilities remains largely marked by the distinction between “developed” and non-“developed” countries, the former having been listed for thirty years in an annex to the framework convention. “The 1990 picture of dividing the world between developed and developing countries has changed significantly, for the better. But with more wealth and more emissions, comes more responsibility“, underlines Hoekstra. The message is aimed in particular at China, but not only: “Everyone who can pay should contribute“.
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