COP22: Turning our climate commitments into reality

“The Paris Agreement was a historic moment, and in Marrakesh we focused on how to turn our climate commitments into action", said the leader of the European Parliament’s COP22 Delegation and Chairman of the Parliament’s Environment Committee, Giovanni La Via MEP at the end of the UN (COP22) climate talks in Marrakesh today.

The representatives of the EPP Group at COP22 were Giovanni La Via, Peter Liese and Sean Kelly.

“The representatives of the 200 states attending the climate conference in Morocco will leave the elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, in the rain,” said Peter Liese MEP, the EPP Group Spokesman on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety highlighting: "The election of Donald Trump has been a shock for everybody working hard on climate protection, but in Marrakesh all the attendants agreed there will be no change in our climate policies.”

Liese continued: “The statement of the Chinese Minister for the Environment was especially important. To China, climate protection is not only a moral obligation, but also an economic chance. In the past, the United States and China have tried to impede our climate policies. From now on, it will be only the US President whom we will have to face protecting our environment.”

Sean Kelly MEP, EPP Group's Irish member of the Industry Committee, underlined that the negotiations have focused on the implementation of the Paris agreement, particularly on the climate contribution and on the support for the developing countries, i.e in finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building. Kelly demanded to call for concerted additional action by the EU and other major emitters to bring their national contributions in line with the Paris objectives. 

LIke Kelly, La Via believes that the agreement made in Paris is strong: “The Paris Agreement was not done in a day, and it will not be undone following an elections outcome of any single country. I am convinced that more ambition on climate change represents a win-win situation for our environment, our climate and our economy through the creation of millions of green jobs. And we were here in Marrakesh to testify to that fact and to translate these words into action.”