MEPs voice frustration at Hoekstra for EU performance at COP30

MEPs expressed their frustration at the COP30 outcomes to EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra at the Strasbourg plenary on Thursday (27 November), saying the bloc had looked both weak and hypocritical at the Brazil summit.

It took until the last minute of the UN’s COP30 climate summit in Belém for members to agree, but the final text includes increased financing options for green action and green transition, along with recognising climate disinformation as an issue, and enshrining the opaque wording from COP28, which calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels.”

However, on a concrete fossil-fuel phaseout roadmap, a key aspect of the EU position, and the EU funding for developing nations’ climate transitions, the EU made significant concessions in the final agreement.

EU climate commissioner Hoekstra acknowledged that there were many points international negotiators failed to meet, but claimed successes in the realms of climate funding and in proving that multilateralism – taking a global approach to issues – is a successful and correct approach to fighting climate change.

“To sum it up: important steps forward — more would have been better, and we will continue to push for exactly that,” said Hoekstra. 

But the MEPs were less enthusiastic about the results. 

Czech rightwing MEP Alexandr Vondra described the EU’s performance at COP as “like Napoleon at Waterloo.”