Cop28 receives EU call to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030

Brussels – It was the most awaited moment for the European Union at the Cop28 that opened last Thursday (30 November in Dubai). “We built a large and strong coalition of countries engaged in the transition to clean energy,” were the words of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, launching the initiative that sets the global targets for 2030 of tripling the installed capacity of renewable energy (at least 11 terawatts) and doubling energy efficiency measures (from 2 to 4 percent per year). “More and more countries are joining, day and night,” underlined today (4 December) the Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, informing that two days after the official launch of the initiative “already 121 countries have signed.”

The global commitment to renewables and energy efficiency was indicated in the joint speech of von der Leyen and the EU Council President, Charles Michel, at the plenary session of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change as one of the results that would have made the Cop28 capable of “making history” if adopted within the final multilateral plan. This morning the Commissioner responsible for energy at the high-level panel “Enhancing the transition to clean energy” summed up the reason for this: “It is a strong signal that together we can move for the future of clean energy that the planet desperately needs; experience shows that clean transition can provide energy security and achieve the climate targets.” The initiative, led by the European Union, the United States, and the Arab Emirates, has been developed with the support of the International Energy Agency (Iea) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), in view of the “most ambitious negotiated possible outcome at the end of this year’s Conference,” underlines the EU Commission in a note.

In calling for “concrete actions to phase out fossil fuels from global energy systems,” Brussels announced that in the next two years, EUR 2.3 billion will be invested from the EU budget to support the energy transition worldwide. At the same time, the resources of the Global Gateway for green transition in the partner countries, as demonstrated by the announcement of the Executive Vice-President of the EU Commission responsible for the Green Deal, Maroš Šefčovič, of a commitment by the Union and its Member States to allocate over EUR 20 billion for the Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative, “We are demonstrating our commitment to the objective of tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency, and we hope it will be included in the Cop28 agreed results,” said Vice-President Šefčovič.

The other EU-led Co28 initiatives

Two years after the official launch of the Cop26 in Glasgow by the European Union and the United States, a voluntary agreement of more than 150 countries to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 (including two of the world’s leading emission contributors, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan)  has been put to the ground at the Cop28 in Dubai. “If we look at the reduction of methane emissions, we are actually facing many crises,” was made clear by Vice-President Šefčovič: “If we deal with it properly, we can have a huge impact not only on climate change but also on air pollution.” It is for this reason that the EU will not only support the Methane Finance Sprint with 175 million euros to catalyse the efforts of governments, industry, and philanthropy to reduce methane emissions in the energy sector but will also develop within the Cop29, along with Algeria, the “You Collect, We Buy” programme, an incentive scheme for companies to capture and market gas that would otherwise go wasted.

In the context of the objectives to be included in the final multilateral plan of the results of the Cop28, the European Union is also pushing two initiatives to address the impact of the climate crisis and the interconnection between climate change, conflicts, and increasing humanitarian needs. In particular, it was the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, who supported, on behalf of the Twenty-seven, two new key initiatives in this context. The first is a founding chart to anticipate disasters and manage risks, which sets out the principles for collaborative action on the use of funding for the protection of people in the most vulnerable countries. The second is a Declaration on Climate Relief, Recovery, and Peace, an initiative that focuses on increasing financial support for climate resilience in fragile and war-torn environments.