Warsaw Communiqué on Climate Change in Europe (2023)

The scientists participating in the inaugural European Climate Conference, representing 45 European countries, acknowledge that evidence-based scientific advice should be the basis for political and personal decisions for climate neutrality, and that scientists should engage more to increase climate change literacy of their fellow citizens. Effective actions for climate neutrality mean deep transformations of most aspects of the economy, the energy system, international markets, and the global cooperation framework. These measures should harmonise mitigation and adaptation strategies, and resolve transnational, national and regional trade-offs. Regional climate change and the global-local relationship should be more in the focus. Neither science, nor politics, nor collective civil action, nor education, nor public or private investments alone are enough. The window of opportunity for reaching the Paris Agreement goal is closing, and this leaves very few realistic options open.

The primary recommendation is to accelerate mitigation measures aligned with the Paris framework, while simultaneously deploying adaption measures. Regulation and financial instruments, such as CO2 pricing, should be used to stimulate climate neutrality. This also includes incentives for openness toward green technologies, for rigorous reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and for counteracting environmental pollution and ecosystem degradation, especially deforestation and biodiversity loss. Europe and Central Asia should make better use of their inherent potential to manage climate change: renewables, connectivity, market economy, people, knowledge, and innovations. Let us embrace these far-reaching potentials to accelerate the pace of transformation towards a climate-neutral future for our continent and for our planet.