European Union to push at COP29 for followup on deal to curb fossil fuels

The European Union will pressure other countries at this year’s COP29 climate summit to follow through on their pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, a draft of the bloc’s negotiating position seen by Reuters showed.

This year’s United Nations climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November, is set to focus on finance, with large economies like the 27-country EU under pressure to agree to commit more money to help poorer nations cope with climate change.

The draft seen by Reuters, which could change before EU countries finalise it in October, said the bloc hoped to reach a deal at COP29 on a new global target for climate funding.

However, it showed Brussels will also have other demands – including that countries significantly step up their efforts to cut emissions by following through on the deal struck at last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

All countries should work on new national climate pledges “aligned with the 1.5°C target and the energy transition goals that were agreed in Dubai, notably transitioning away from fossil fuels, while tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling annual energy efficiency gains by 2030”, the draft said.

Countries face an early 2025 deadline to submit new national climate pledges to the UN.

Preparatory UN climate talks last month yielded little progress on how countries would act on their agreement to move away from fossil fuels – with European nations and climate-vulnerable island states saying major oil and gas producers had blocked attempts to discuss this.

The EU is currently the world’s biggest contributor of climate finance. Brussels has said it plans to continue this support – but has argued bigger funding contributions must be paired with stronger actions by other countries to cut the CO2 emissions causing climate change.

The EU is also set to push at COP29 for other major economies, like China, to contribute towards the UN climate finance goal, the document showed.