The European Union is ready to update its emissions-cutting target, climate policy chief Frans Timmermans told the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, November 15, pointing to recently agreed EU policies to cut emissions faster than planned.

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“I’m happy to announce here today that the EU stands ready to update our NDC reflecting this higher ambition,” he said referring to the bloc’s Nationally Determined Contribution – or plan to cut emissions.

“So don’t let anybody tell you, here or outside, that the EU is backtracking,” he said.

Government ministers and negotiators from nearly 200 countries on Tuesday, November 15, began the hard work of finding common ground at the annual UN climate talks for a deal based on a sketched first outline in the hands of delegates at the summit in Egypt.

Released late Monday, November 14, by the Egyptian COP27 Presidency, the document lists two pages of bullet points outlining many of the issues countries have asked be included – including contentious points that have nations deeply divided.

The document is titled a “non-paper,” making clear it was far from an official draft of what might actually be approved by countries at the summit’s close, scheduled for Friday, November 18, as the core political agreement from the two-week event.

“It’s all boiling down to the last days,” EU environment policy chief Virginijus Sinkevicius told Reuters on the sidelines of the summit.

“It seems like still we are quite far from what we would love to have as an outcome, but I’m sure as more and more energy is put in, it will boil down to the last days and maybe last minutes,” he said.

A section in the draft on loss and damage – referring to funding for developing countries facing unavoidable damage caused by climate change – suggested the deal would address the “need for funding arrangements” to tackle this.

It did not, however, give any hint of whether the final deal will include a new loss and damage fund – which developing countries are demanding in the negotiations, but which the European Union and United States are wary of.

The burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change, but coal, gas and oil were notably absent in the draft deal.

India surprised some countries last week by pushing for a deal at the summit to phase down all fossil fuels – rather than just coal, as countries agreed at last year’s UN summit. The draft COP27 text did not hint at which route the final deal will take on this issue.

The document did mention the urgent need for action to keep within reach the globally agreed goal to prevent the world heating beyond 1.5C above preindustrial levels, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Tom Evans, a policy analyst at non-profit think tank E3G, said the draft text was a “wish list of items,” but it did not reveal what is likely to make it into the final deal.

“Many of the issues hinted at in this paper are under live discussion at the G20 leaders summit,” he said, adding that what Group of 20 country leaders decide during their meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, November 16, in Bali on issues including phasing down fossil fuels could steer the COP27 summit’s final outcome.

he European Union is expected to announce plans at the COP27 summit on Tuesday, November 15, to update its emissions-cutting target under the Paris climate change accord before next year’s UN summit, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The move by the world’s third biggest polluter – after China and the United States – would attempt to convince other countries that the 27-country EU is sticking by its commitments to fight climate change, even as it battles an energy crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered a dash for gas in Europe and prompted some countries to burn more coal, as they scramble to replace energy supplies from Russia that have been disrupted this year.

EU policymakers say the moves are temporary, and point to plans to expand renewable energy which the European Commission proposed making more ambitious this year to help countries quit Russian gas faster.

But the optics of European countries burning more coal – while at the same time urging poorer countries to wean themselves off the fuel – has complicated the EU’s climate record and led some countries at the COP27 summit to complain of backsliding on green goals.

“There’s been this very strange narrative going around, that because of the challenges coming to Europe because of Putin’s war against Ukraine, we would be stepping back from our ambitions,” EU climate chief Frans Timmermans told COP27 on Monday, November 14.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

The EU has among the most ambitious climate change policies of major emitters, having committed to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions 55% by 2030, from 1990 levels, and completely eliminate them by 2050.

The bloc is now negotiating a raft of laws to deliver those goals. Ahead of the COP27, EU countries and lawmakers rushed through deals on three of the laws, including a 2035 ban on selling new fossil fuel cars in the bloc.

Those laws, if implemented, mean EU countries would overachieve the 55% emissions cut. One of the laws, on protecting forests and other CO2-absorbing ecosystems, could cut countries’ overall net emissions by 57%, according to EU lawmakers.

With COP27 climate summit negotiations grinding over political points and technical details, delegates were hoping the G20 summit starting Tuesday, November 15, in Indonesia offers a boost to ambition for global action on fighting climate change.

The news on Monday, November 14, of China and the United States resuming climate cooperation has already buoyed hopes for a positive outcome from the UN climate summit, being held this year in Egypt. But there’s still much to get done before the scheduled end of the talks on Friday, November 18.

With the UN summit taking on the theme of “energy” on Tuesday, there are several events that will address global progress on transitioning off fossil fuels.

A cluster of countries that agreed at last year’s climate summit, COP26, to stop public funding for overseas fossil fuel projects will give a progress update, and potentially add new members to the club.

Separately, a high-level panel including US Climate Envoy John Kerry and last year’s COP26 president, Alok Sharma, will discuss efforts by banks and rich nations to help developing counterparts with technical assistance and project finance for their energy transitions.

And a group of African countries including Kenya and COP27-host Egypt are set to release a report on the economic potential of green hydrogen, including likely export markets.

Meanwhile, the EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans is due to give a news conference. And in the evening, Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is due to arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh, ahead of a scheduled speech to COP27 on Wednesday, November 16.

As the 2022 UN climate negotiations (COP27) continues to dominate global headlines, policy dialogues are set to increase in the Philippines on climate, environment, and energy-related issues.

Determining next year’s national budget is the main agenda in congressional deliberations for the next few weeks, which must account for the growing climate-related costs and needs of the country. The Philippines recorded P506.1 billion in climate-related loss and damage for 2010-2020, representing 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP). Such damage can increase up to 7.6% of GDP by 2030, barring adequate measures. 

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Mexico has pledged to deploy a further 30 gigawatts in renewable energy capacity by 2030, the nation’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday, November 14, as America’s third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter works with the United States to meet new climate goals.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard traveled to Egypt to attend the COP27 climate summit, where he met with US climate envoy John Kerry and over the weekend presented Mexico’s plans to invest some $48 billion in developing renewable energy.

The new solar, geothermal, wind and hydroelectric capacity would double Mexico’s renewable capabilities, from its installed capacity of around 30 GW at the end of 2021, and bring solar and wind capacities to 40 GW.

“This new national renewable goal will be a foundation for achieving Mexico’s updated nationally determined contribution,” the ministry said, a week after Mexico said it would raise its emissions reduction target for the first time since 2016.

The new goals would also see Mexico, a major car manufacturing hub, sell 50% zero-emissions vehicles by 2030.

The United States said it welcomed the plan and would work closely with Mexico by helping incentivize investments and support plans to cut methane emissions. Mexico has earmarked $2 billion to eliminate routine flaring at state oil firm Pemex.

Pemex said Saturday, November 12, it would work with the US Environmental Protection Agency to develop an emissions-cutting plan in the first half of next year, after satellite data showing vast volumes of natural gas flaring and methane leaks drew fresh scrutiny.

“The United States looks forward to further cooperation with Mexico,” the embassy said Monday, highlighting that efforts would respect each country’s sovereignty.

The United States – the world’s No.2 greenhouse gas emitter – is in talks with Mexico over tighter state control of its energy sector, which the United States argues unfairly hinders private renewable projects.

Last week, Ebrard told a news conference Mexico must ramp up clean energy production faster than the United States to ensure it complies with demand for goods to be made with more environmentally friendly inputs.