Ministers discussed climate finance informally during the ministerial luncheon. There was general agreement that climate finance is a key to reach EU’s overall climate priorities on reducing emissions of CO2 and build up climate resilience, especially in developing countries. Ministers also stressed the importance of the question of climate finance in the run up to the COP18 climate negotiations in Doha in November.
Martin Lidegaard, Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Building, highlighted that: "It has been an important priority for the Danish EU Presidency to focus on the financing of climate relevant investments in developing countries. It makes good sense to help developing countries pursue green development, since this will contribute to reduce the global emissions of CO2, which is one of the EU’s overall climate priorities. It is important the EU have firm answers on how to take climate finance forward after 2012 before going to COP18 in Doha in November."
The Council also had a very constructive debate on common rules for how we count emissions and up-take of greenhouse gas emissions from land-use and forestry in EU.
The Minister says:
“Today we had a constructive debate on some of the key issues of the Commission’s recent proposal for common accounting rules for greenhouse gas emission from forestry and land use in the EU. It is important that all sectors contribute to reducing our overall reduction of greenhouse gases. Member States agree that the proposal is an important first step in strengthening the climate mitigation in the forestry and land use sectors.“
Regarding the state-of-play on the Low Carbon Economy Roadmap 2050 the Presidency reiterated the importance of this roadmap.
The minister says:
“The Danish Presidency has attaches very high importance to the roadmap. In March, we issued Presidency conclusions with the support from 26 Member States on milestones for green house gas reductions by 2030 and 2040 and the Commission was invited to present policy proposals for the period towards 2030. I look forward to the Commissions proposals”.