Following the recent US-EU summit, which saw EU leaders, including the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, meeting with US President, Joe Biden and the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in Washington DC, the United States and the European Union reaffirmed their commitment to a transatlantic partnership that delivers for all the people.
In particular, ahead of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28), the US and the EU said to deepen their collaboration to address the urgent and interdependent crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution and urge ambitious action by all other major players.
“We will work expeditiously to implement the Paris Agreement, halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity globally and protect the ocean,” read the joint press release. “We will intensify our outreach to third countries, making every effort to keep a 1.5 degree Celsius limit on
global temperature warming within reach. We are committed to working together and with others for COP28 to reach bold commitments to dramatically increase global renewable energy capacity and energy efficiency while supporting a global shift away from unabated fossil fuels, including an end to new unabated coal-fired power plants. We will continue to lead efforts to cut methane to support achieving the Global Methane Pledge and look forward to a robust Methane Finance Sprint announcement at COP28.”
Both parties recalled the Joint Energy Security Task Force and US-EU Energy Council as important tools to continue to advance the energy transition to climate neutrality and bolster energy security.
Signs of progress were mentioned toward a targeted critical minerals agreement for the purpose of expanding access to sustainable, secure and diversified high-standard critical minerals and battery supply chains and enabling those minerals extracted or processed in the European Union to count toward requirements for clean vehicles in the Section 30D clean vehicle tax credit of the Inflation Reduction Act.
