China must do more to prevent climate catastrophe

"The outcome of COP26 has shown that the world must fight climate change with more ambition. We can only avoid a climate catastrophe if the whole world works together. In the last 30 years, Europe has reduced its emissions by 25 percent, about 1 percent per year on average. But we must do more", said Peter Liese MEP, the EPP Group's Spokesman on environment issues.

The EPP Group is convinced that in order to contain global warming in the limits of the Paris Agreement, ambitious climate policy is necessary, but emerging markets, especially China, the world's second largest economy, must make much more efforts than announced until now.

"There can be no outliers. We want the most polluting economies such as China to set higher emissions reduction goals and reduce their dependency on coal. Whereas Europe, on the other hand, must make sure its climate protection rules motivate the world to follow by de-carbonisation, instead of de-industrialisation", stressed Liese.

The EPP Group participated at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, United Kingdom, with an official delegation consisting of Peter Liese MEP, Esther de Lange MEP, Lídia Pereira MEP and Hildegard Bentele MEP.