After the failure of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen the COP16 in Cancún/Mexico shall deliver a set of decisions. Little progress has been made during the year and there is still no consensus on the major topics: financing, emission reductions, monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). In order to limit global warming, the European Movement International demands:

• to assure that a substantial outcome will be reached in Cancún. This year’s natural catastrophes gave an early impression of what scientists predict as impact of global warming. If more time passes until a new climate agreement will be ratified, the costs for mitigation and adaptation will increase considerably.
• the EU to take a leadership role. The Commission and the Belgian presidency need to make sure that the EU’s position will be communicated with one voice. The national Ministers shall represent the common position of the EU mandate, not differing national interests.
• the EU to prove its credibility concerning the fast-start funding and to be fully transparent on the delivery of the promised sum of €7.2 billion Euro. This money needs to be “new and additional” and shall be delivered in Cancún at the latest.
• the EU to scale up its reduction target to 30% by 2020. According to the IPCC, the industrial countries need to reduce their emissions by 25-40% by 2020 to reach the 2°C target.
• the EU to demonstrate that it is ready for a second commitment period for the reduction of climate gases in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. Climate protection efforts must continue even post-2012.
• that the negotiations on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) will be concluded in Cancún. Negotiations were already at an advanced stage in Copenhagen and must deliver an outcome this year. The strategy plan of the Nagoya Biodiversity conference includes the goal to stop deforestation by 2020, this deadline must be integrated in the climate deal as well.
• that the terms and mechanisms of technology transfer become more substantial. There are already a lot of successful European initiatives which should bring the international negotiations a step forward in this topic.
• to set up the right conditions for an efficient monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system. The measures for capacity building in controlling emissions, as well as the mechanism for reporting need to be agreed.
• that the architecture of financing (scale, source and governance) of climate protection from 2013-2020 and beyond will be fixed. Developing countries need a reliable long-term perspective to support their climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.
• Further agreements must be concluded at the COP 17 in South Africa at the end of 2011, in particular a global commitment to reduce greenhouse gases and a common long-term vision towards 2050 for a successful fight against climate change. For the EU this means a reduction of greenhouse gases by at least 80% (compared to 1990 levels) by the middle of the century.

The EMI supports initiatives at all levels (European, national, regional, local) for a low carbon economy and society. The EU must be a model for a global effort to save the planet.