Can the EU and China save the Paris Agreement in 2020? – Mattias Frumerie

I think it’s necessary for the EU and China to be working together to make sure that we reach the targets of the climate agreement or the Paris Agreement and I think there are many avenues for the EU and China to do so during 2020 with both the EU-China summit in March and also the leaders’ meeting coming up in Leipzig in September So I think there will be many opportunities for the EU and China to engage to make sure that we’re reaching the targets of the climate agreement and going beyond and increasing ambition which we need to see. My take-home message from the seminar this morning was the importance and the possibilities of EU leadership. Making and engaging with partners across the world on increasing global climate action, I think we have a very good basis for doing that from the EU’s side, with the European Council in December having adopted the climate neutrality goal to 2050, the European Commission’s green deal and also the conclusions from the foreign ministers on climate diplomacy adopted in January. I’m not sure that the Paris Agreement actually needs saving, but absolutely the EU and China need to work together to make sure that the Paris Agreement targets are reached and that we’re encouraging Partners across the world to come in with more ambitious and NDCs - National Determined Contributions during 2020 I am optimistic about the future. I think that’s part of my job description as well But I think there are so many solutions being offered and so many actors across the world engaging in climate action and wanting to see more action and pushing us to deliver more concrete goals and targets, so I think I am optimistic. .