EVENT
The 21st Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held in December 2015 in Paris, with the aim to conclude a new international climate agreement which would enter into force in 2020. The Co-Chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) have prepared a draft agreement that is already circulating. All countries have been asked to put forward national targets for climate action, with around 150 countries having submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) so far.
Despite these advances, action to combat climate change has so far failed to match the challenge effectively, with the window of opportunity for staying below the critical 2°C threshold closing rapidly. The Paris Conference therefore offers perhaps the last chance to agree on a collective framework for action.
The US and the EU can play an important role in leading the way in reducing global emissions and also in getting others to join the effort. Their own ambitions and expectations - as well as how far they are willing to commit – will therefore have an influence on the outcomes in Paris. Could they do more to reach out to other developed and developing countries? What challenges and political divergences still need to be overcome among the major emitters? And what would constitute a successful climate agreement?
The European Policy Centre, in cooperation with the United States Mission to the European Union, organised a Policy Dialogue to address these and other questions with two climate experts with experience of climate policy making in the US and the EU.
