PURPOSE: to conclude on behalf of the European Union
of the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council may adopt
the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the
act.
BACKGROUND: at the 21st Conference of the Parties of
the UNFCCC (known as COP 21), which took place in Paris from
30 November to 12 December 2015, the text of an agreement was
adopted, concerning the strengthening of the global response to
climate change.
In its communication
assessing the implications of the Paris Agreement, the Commission
stated that the Paris Agreement should be signed and ratified as
soon as possible. In its conclusions of 18 March 2016, the
European Council underlined the need for the European Union and its
Member States to conclude the Paris Agreement as soon as possible
and on time so as to be parties as of its entry into
force.
As a first step, the Agreement was signed by the
Commission and Council on behalf of the European Union and by
all 28 Member States on their behalf at the high-level signature
ceremony which took place in New York on 22 April 2016.
The Paris Agreement is in conformity with the
environmental objectives of the Union as referred to in Article
191 of the Treaty, namely preserving, protecting and improving the
quality of the environment; protecting human health; and promoting
measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide
environmental problems, and in particular combating climate
change.
The 2030 climate and energy policy framework for the
EU sets an ambitious economy-wide
target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 40%
domestically by 2030, as well as renewable energy and energy
efficiency targets of at least 27%. Implementing the 2030 energy
and climate framework is a priority in follow up to the Paris
Agreement.
CONTENT: the Commission proposes that the Council
decide to approve, on behalf of the European Union, the
Paris Agreement adopted on 12 December 2015 under the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Paris Agreement is a global milestone for
enhancing global collective action and accelerating the global
transformation to a low-carbon and climate resilient society. It
will replace the approach taken under the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, that contains commitments until the end of 2020.
These commitments will not be continued beyond 2020.
The Paris Agreement sets out a qualitative long-term
emissions reduction goal in line with the objective to keep the
global temperature increase well below 2°C and to pursue
efforts to keep it to 1.5°C. In order to achieve this
goal, the parties will prepare, communicate and maintain successive
nationally determined contributions. Starting from 2023, parties
will every 5 years undertake a global stocktake, based on the
latest science and implementation to date, which will track
progress and consider emission reductions, adaptation and support
provided.
The Agreement will enter into force on the 30th day
after the date on which at least 55 parties to the Convention
accounting in total for at least an estimated 55% of global
greenhouse gas emissions have deposited their instruments of
ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.