Good evening everyone,
I want to thank the Danish Presidency in general, and Lars in particular, for the amazing job you have done throughout the last weeks and months, but also today.
As you are all aware, there are two big items on the agenda today that are different but also at the same time intrinsingly linked, the conversation on 2040 and the conversation on our NDC.
First on 2040.
We truly had a very good, productive and proactive meeting. And my read is that more and more Member States have articulated where they want to land; have articulated satisfaction with many of the things that were on the table; have also articulated some of the things that they would love to see to further enhance and beef up the proposal. And this is exactly how it should be.
As Lars was already saying, it is a three-step moment. We have today, which was very productive and fruitful. We will have the European Council that will provide us with guidance and with their views on enabling conditions. And my read is that they will then task us to continue to work and make sure we finalise this.
I agree with Lars, we should do so at the ENVI Council soon after that European Council to make sure we have all these things in order as soon as possible and certainly before the COP.
Processes as always in politics are a bit unpredictable. But it is the combinaison of content, process, communication and building strong majorities that in the end is needed to do this type of work.Particularly with the trilogue that we have and the 27 Member States who rightly so have specific and different perspectives and different asks in order to make this whole thing come together.
The second conversation was of course on the NDC.
Very important, as Lars was already saying, that the EU moves ahead and is explicit about where it wants to go.
The two things are linked, but of corse the timing is not necessarily the same. If you postpone the conversation on 2040, what do you do with the NDC where there is a clear deadline, before we walk into Belém?
The very good news of today, and very good work of the Presidency, is that we have come up with a Statement of Intent, which also allows us to confidently walk into New York next week with a range that by any international standard is truly ambitious - 66,25 to 72,5 %. It is clearly in line with the Paris Agreement and, in my view, very helpful to articulate where the EU wants to go.
Building consensus is something that ttypically akes time, that is the time we have taken today.
As always it was worth the effort.
Thank you very much.
