EU climate chief calls for faster action on Paris talks

The European Union’s top climate official said negotiations leading up to a United Nations climate summit this December are moving too slowly. 

In a Brussels speech on Thursday, EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete said diplomats are moving too slowly on crafting the draft version of the agreement officials will consider in Paris this fall. 

{mosads}“In the negotiating rooms, progress has been painfully slow,” he said. “The technical talks are seriously lagging behind the political discussion. This must change.”

He also said more countries, including major economies like Argentina, Brazil and India, need to submit their greenhouse gas reduction goals before the conference kicks off. 

Fifty-six countries, representing 61 percent of global emissions, have submitted plans, including top emitters like the United States and China. 

But the emissions goals on the table so far are not enough to stop the global temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius, the benchmark for preventing the brunt of global warning. 

“We must have a clear idea of the aggregate effort before we meet in Paris and where we stand with regards to the below 2 degrees objective,” Cañete said.

He also reiterated that Europeans want a legally binding climate agreement, something many in the U.S., including congressional Republicans, have resisted.  

“It is no secret that like the United States and a number of countries are reluctant to agree to some forms of binding deal,” he said. “It is up to these countries to demonstrate a convincing alternative that gives the necessary long-term signal that citizens, markets and decision makers need.”

President Obama has proposed cutting U.S. carbon emissions by up to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 as part of the climate deal. 

Other major emitters, like China and the EU, have proposed emission targets as well, raising hopes that the U.N. might be able to broker a global accord to confront climate change this year.

But officials still worry the talks might fail, much the way they did at a U.N. conference in Copenhagen in 2009. 

French President François Hollande said Thursday that a conference without a climate deal would be a “disaster,” Agence France-Presse reports. 

But the EU’s Cañete said there is “strong political will” to get a deal done. He praised Obama’s finalized rules for power plant emissions as a “positive step forward” ahead of the conference.

“There is strong political will to reach an ambitious global climate agreement,” he said. “We have seen momentum steadily building in Europe and beyond, with more and more countries following Europe’s lead.”