On 22 and 23 July 2015, EU Environment Ministers will meet in Luxembourg to discuss climate finance, one of the core elements of the forthcoming Paris Agreement, ahead of the crucial phase of the Climate change conference (COP 21) in Paris taking place in five months time.
The topic will be addressed after keynote presentations by Héla Cheikhrouhou, Executive Director of the Green climate fund, by Jonathan Taylor, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and by Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP. The ministers will debate on concrete measures and financing instruments to support climate action.
The 21st Conference of Parties (COP21), under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, will seek to finalise and adopt an international agreement aimed at combatting climate change in the post-Kyoto period. The subjects of climate finance, the importance of financial flows from industrialised to developing countries and the use of public funding with the highest possible leverage on likeminded private sector funding sources are amongst the topics up for discussion.
Ministers will also take stock of the climate negotiations in the light of the latest meeting of the Major Economic Forum (MEF), which will take place on 18-19 July 2015 in Luxembourg, and the latest round of the COP21 informal consultations. This debate will be followed by a first discussion on the core elements of the EU negotiation mandate for Paris, to be adopted by the Environment Council in September 2015.
Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete will present the European Commission’s proposal revising the ETS directive to the ministers.
Ministers will also discuss the Post 2015 agenda and in particular the ecological dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to be adopted on 25-27 September 2015 during the UN Summit on the matter.
The lunch debate will exhibit a particular focus on biodiversity: in this context, the NGO “BirdLife” will present key findings of its mid-term report of the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy.
