Green’s lead MEP ahead of COP30: 'We're making an absolute joke of ourselves'

As the world prepares for another round of global climate talks, expectations are running high — and frustrations are, too.

Between 10 and 21 November, Belém, Brazil, will host the 30th UN Climate Conference (COP30), where global leaders, activists, and negotiators will once again grapple with the question of how to keep the planet on a livable path.

Among those heading to the Amazonian city is Lena Schilling, a 24-year-old Austrian MEP for the Greens and one of the youngest faces in the European Parliament’s climate team.

As the Greens’ lead negotiator on the EU’s 2040 climate target, Schilling is part of the delegation aiming to push for more ambitious commitments — even as faith in the COP process itself is wearing thin.

Ahead of the conference, EUobserver spoke with Schilling about why she’s frustrated with the current state of the climate talks, what she expects from COP30, and who she believes is holding back global progress.

EUobserver: You recently posted a video on Instagram saying that the COP is broken. Why do you think this UN summit is failing to achieve its goals?

Schilling: Ten years ago, with the major commitment to the [2015] Paris Climate Agreement, the international community said, we've understood this climate crisis thing, we're serious about it, we're going to take care of it now. They also promised the next generations and all the young people who were paying attention: we're taking this seriously, we're doing this, we now have a path, we will follow it.

There are three reasons why this COP is in a difficult place: First, there are old white men in power who are willing to put these promises and the future at risk. Second, the EU itself is no longer willing to deliver what we actually need to have delivered. And third: conferences where lots of people travel to, where many people are watching, but in the end, it's not clear whether anything will come out of it at all or what comes out — that's also not a hopeful sign for the future. We know how much pressure democracies and climate protection are under internationally right now.

And especially now, we need to pull ourselves together and show that we actually take this responsibility seriously.

When would you say the shift in climate policy began?

There have simply been these moments again and again where the question was 'how we move forward now'. But from 2015 to 2022, we actually had an international commitment to climate protection, where a lot of good things emerged as well.

I mean, the fact that the [EU] Green Deal was negotiated like that, that we have so many different legislative puzzle pieces to prepare a solution — that's a huge success. And since 2022, I'd say approximately, we've been going in a direction that is extremely threatening.

Despite all that, you're still going to COP30. Why?

I think what's really important is that we don't leave the frustration and especially the stage to those who have already given up on all of this. I mean, Donald Trump, who says "drill, baby, drill." And also many other heads of state who go there and say, well, actually we'd rather discuss other things.

You can't allow that. That's why we're going there with a fighting message, because there are still so many people and especially decision-makers who are making an effort. Maybe those aren't the ones who are in power right now.

We've been saying for years that the EU leads on climate protection, and now we can't even meet our deadlines, let alone fulfil our own climate protection laws

What's the EU's position on this?

We were supposed to submit our climate target, the NDC [National Determined Contributions, ie plans to reduce emissions], on 23 September. There was an Environment Council beforehand where we should have finalised this. And it simply didn't happen because Europe's heads of state and government said no, we absolutely want to negotiate this at the heads of state level.

What happened there? Was an NDC decided there? Was a 2040 climate target decided there? No.

And now, hopefully, on Tuesday (4 November), there will be a decision from the environment ministers. I'm talking a lot in the background with ambassadors, with permanent representations. It's not clear what will happen there.

It's clear that as soon as there's a council decision, we in the European Parliament will negotiate. But that contains the first big problem: namely, the EPP [European People’s Party], they are only ready to negotiate once the council has come to a decision.

If this decision is made on the 4th, we in the parliament will negotiate our law on the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th [of November] — let's see how much time we need. We'll hopefully vote on this in the mini-plenary next week.

If that has a majority, then after that we still have two, three days where we could do trilogue [inter-institutional negotiations with the commission and the council], where it could work out. But here again is a really big problem: COP already starts on the 10th.

It has already damaged us internationally that the EU is submitting an NDC late, because it's also clear that many other countries have been looking to us

How does that influence the credibility of the EU at an international level?

We're making an absolute joke of ourselves. We've been saying for years that the EU leads on climate protection, and now we can't even meet our deadlines, let alone fulfil our own climate protection laws.

If we water down the Due Diligence Directive, the supply chain law, why should anyone believe us that we'll stick with CBAM [Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism]. So we're making ourselves extremely untrustworthy in all these things right now.

We know exactly that it's causing planning uncertainty right now and above all, will be much, much, much more expensive in the end.

So economically too, what we're doing right now makes absolutely no sense.

I mean, it would really be a farce if we don't manage to go there with an NDC, because what is the commission supposed to say then? What are we supposed to say to China? You're not doing it, we're not either. Okay, then let's give up collectively.

That just doesn't work. So it's the fundamental question of how seriously people will take negotiations.

Who is to blame for this lengthy process?

With the conservative heads of state and government, but also with my colleagues from the European People's Party in parliament.

Because we would have been ready to negotiate — the Social Democrats, the Liberals, us [Greens], the Left — everyone would have been ready to negotiate, but not the EPP. So apparently, the representatives of the European People's Party don't take their own mandate so seriously anymore. Instead, they find it better to wait for what heads of state and government have to say.

And this has, I want to say this clearly again, this has already damaged us internationally today. It has already damaged us internationally that the EU is submitting an NDC late, because it's also clear that many other countries have been looking to us.

And internationally or EU-wide, [German chancellor Friedrich] Merz and [French president Emmanuel] Macron are certainly where the main responsibilities lie in this drama.

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