Lawmakers from the European Parliament environment committee are fully backing the EU governments’ position for the COP26 climate summit, wherein countries will finalise rules to put the 2015 Paris Agreement into effect.

The COP26 summit, will run from October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland, aims to clinch more ambitious targets from countries to cut emissions, and establish the “rulebook” for how countries set targets and track progress under the Paris deal.

In a 60-15 vote, the European Union parliament’s environment committee said the rulebook should require countries to set national climate targets every five years. This stance is likely to be confirmed by the full parliament in a vote next week, lending weight to the EU’s negotiating position at the summit.

“The most thorny issue is probably the rulebook,” said Finnish lawmaker Nils Torvalds. “That’s one issue where we need to find solutions, because without the rulebook we might be in dire straits.”

European lawmakers, who will join the EU delegation to COP26 but not take part in the technical negotiations, urged all G20 rich countries to commit to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

The EU has already set that goal into law, but large emitters including Russia and Saudi Arabia have yet to commit to become climate neutral states.

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Tags: climate neutrality, climate summit, COP26, cut emissions, environment committee, EU, EU delegation, European Parliament, European Union, finalise rules, large emitters, lawmakers, national climate targets, negotiating position, Nils Torvalds, rulebook, Russia, Saudi Arabia, technical negotiations, track progress