In its conclusions on the upcoming Doha Climate Conference, the EU Council: stresses the need to plan the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) towards the 2015 legally-binding agreement; and underlines its commitment to agree in Doha a ratifiable amendment to the Kyoto Protocol that enables a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol.
25 October 2012: The EU Council convened to prepare for the upcoming 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the UNFCCC and the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 8), scheduled to take place in Doha, Qatar, from 26 November – 7 December 2012.
In its conclusions on COP 18, the Council: urges all parties to build on and accelerate the work undertaken at the inter-sessional UNFCCC meetings of May 2012 in Bonn and August-September 2012 in Bangkok in order for the Doha Conference to agree an ambitious overall outcome that provides a balanced political dynamic to take forward all elements of the package agreed in Durban; reiterates its commitment to the full implementation of the Durban package; and recalls that gender aspects need to be integrated into efforts to combat climate change.
On the Durban Platform, the Council: stresses the need to plan the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) towards the 2015 legally-binding agreement; calls upon all parties to start preparing the domestic policies needed to conclude the global legallybinding agreement applicable to all by 2015 at the latest; stresses the need to bridge the ambition gap between the collective level of mitigation ambition up to 2020 and the global emissions trajectory in line with the objective of staying below 2° C; and reaffirms its offer to move to a 30% reduction by 2020 compared to 1990, on the condition that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable emission reductions.
On the Kyoto Protocol, the Council: underlines its commitment to agree in Doha a ratifiable amendment to the Kyoto Protocol that enables a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol; underlines that the second commitment period starts in 2013 and should end in 2020; and reiterates that the surplus of assigned amount units (AAUs) from the first commitment period could affect the environmental integrity of the Protocol if it is not addressed appropriately.
the Environment Council under the Cyprus Presidency was held on 25 October 2012 in Luxembourg. [Council of the European Union Press Release 25 October 2012] [Publication: Conclusions on the Preparations for COP 18] [Publication: Conclusions on Rio+20] [European Commission Memo on the Preparations for the Council]