(26 January 2015) – With ten months to go before the COP 21, Paris is doing all it can to provide the ideal conditions for a global agreement. Europe hopes to play a facilitating role in the international negotiations, which will focus on the needs and attainable contributions of individual countries. But the changing geopolitical landscape lies at the heart of the problem for Europe.
The EU is no longer the driving force behind the global fight against climate change, in part because the 28 country bloc’s carbon footprint is now relatively light compared to that of the worst-emitting emerging economies and the United States, and in part because the “top-down” approach it advocates, and continues to apply within its own borders, has fallen from favour.
Europe’s climate alliance with developing countries, which benefited from payments under the Clean Development Mechanism, collapsed along with the price of carbon. At €7 per ton, these projects are no longer sustainable, leaving the future funding of the fight against climate change under a cloud of uncertainty. (EurActiv)