This picture shows flags prior to an EU - US summit at the European Union headquarters in Brussels on June 15, 2021. Photo by Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP
Brussels, Belgium: The EU wants less "drama" at the next United Nations climate conference in November in Turkey, the bloc's climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra said Thursday.
European countries were deeply frustrated by last year's COP30 climate conference in Brazil, which produced a watered-down final text that lacked any explicit mention of a fossil-fuel transition.
The European Union is now seeking a new approach to have greater influence at the next major UN climate conference, COP31, in the southern Turkish city of Antalya, from November 9 to 20.
European climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told journalists in a briefing he wants to avoid the dramatic twists of the last 10 years "with ministers running around and then doing wordsmithing around four o'clock in the morning.
"I think we can do without a lot of drama and we need more implementation."
He said there needed to be "clarity on the agenda" from the outset and "not trying to revisit or redo the conversation of last year".
Hoekstra said the EU wants to push the electrification of energy uses and highlight its carbon pricing policy at the next COP meeting.
And he urged more initiatives led by coalitions of countries, outside the framework of the climate conference, which is hampered by the unanimity rule.
He highlighted the gathering in Santa Marta, Colombia, which brought together some 50 nations last month to try to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels.
He also praised a French-Canadian initiative to decarbonise global aviation, and pointed to European diplomacy to develop a global carbon pricing system, similar to the carbon market in place in the EU since 2005, which requires heavy polluters pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.
The EU scheme "is something that has also inspired others".
The commissioner said there had been technical cooperation with China, while there was political progress in Brazil, Chile and Mexico.
The European Union's approach to the next COP summit is the subject of debate among the 27 member states.
France has criticised the negotiations and wants the EU to take a firmer stance with emerging countries that it says are dragging their feet.
France's ecological transition minister Monique Barbut has singled out India.
