Written by Tassos Magginas and Dan Milmo, CNN
The European Union called Tuesday for more leadership on the issue of climate change, in the wake of the UN summit in Bonn where a deal to cut emissions barely made a dent in the global crisis.
The comments from Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission (EC), came in response to an email from CNN asking about his reaction to the deal struck in Bonn by more than 120 countries meeting under the auspices of the UN.
Critics said the text did not do enough to cut global emissions.
“The E.U. has decided to step back on its leadership role,” Juncker wrote, but he insisted the two recent climate summits, the Paris COP21 last year and the Bonn conference this week, had made huge progress and paved the way for the return of the UN-led talks in Katowice, Poland later this year.
If countries do not agree at the Katowice talks, a legally binding agreement could still be signed as the agreement would have been agreed by a majority of parties rather than all countries submitting their positions to the conference.
What’s done is done and now its time to move forward, said Juncker, adding that “the climatic catastrophe of our time is upon us.”
The letter was obtained by CNN through a freedom of information request and obtained by Bloomberg.
