EU regions warn that they “will not flee” their climate goals at COP27

The president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Vasco Cordeiro, said Friday that the local and regional authorities of the European Union (EU) that he represents in this body “will not flee” from their objectives at the UN Climate Conference this November, better known as COP27.

“Given that COP27 will discuss global adaptation to climate challenges, it is essential that the local dimension is taken into account in the definition of objectives,” Cordeiro said in a virtual speech during the European Public Communication Conference, dedicated this year to the communication of climate issues.

Green transition

The Committee of the Regions is aligned with the EU’s objective of achieving zero polluting emissions by 2050 but, in particular, calls for more powers and a greater role for sub-state governments to face the green transition, which they will claim with a special delegation in the international negotiations of COP27, which will take place in Egypt.

“Regions and cities are on the front lines when it comes to cushioning the burden of energy bills on people’s shoulders, restoring biodiversity, building sustainable communities or preparing them for future climate emergencies,” he said.

Cordeiro warned that “the success of the green transition depends on the involvement of regional and local actors” and listed a series of sustainable projects promoted by these authorities in the EU to affirm that, in his opinion, local stories are a “key tool to communicate climate action”.

“With these (local) stories we can show that climate action reduces air pollution in the places where we live, that renewable energy will lower bills, that sustainable energy projects will create new job opportunities and that climate action will ensure energy and food security and better health for all.” Aimed.

He added: “We need to embark on a profound transformation of our societies and guide them towards a climate-neutral economy. This is not just a matter of orientation or a political choice, it’s a matter of survival.”

Apart from Cordeiro, during this virtual conference also intervened, among others, the director general of the European Commission for Climate Action, Jacob Weskerman, who admitted that “changes in the objectives will not be enough to meet the challenge of avoiding 1.5 degrees” of maximum global warming.

Precisely, the Paris Agreement, which is legally binding for the signatory states, set 2 degrees as the maximum limit of the planet’s temperature with respect to pre-industrial levels, although it also urged the parties to achieve efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees instead of 2.

In this sense, from the Community Executive, Weskerman said that they do not perceive “much evidence that countries will agree to lower (their claims) to 1.5 degrees.”

“Expectations are being adjusted,” warned the leader, who recalled that this decade, until 2030, is “critical” to try to alleviate the effects of climate change.

Source: EFE Verde