Climate summits are falling short of what the planet needs, EU climate chief says

BRUSSELS - The outcomes of most of the United Nations' recent COP climate summits have fallen short of the more ambitious action scientists say is needed to address climate change, said EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra on Monday.

"If you look at what the problem actually needs and where the bar should then be, and what most of the COPs of the last five, six, seven, eight years have delivered, then you just have to admit that that was underwhelming," Hoekstra told an event hosted by Politico in Brussels.

He added that there was a need to continue work at COP summits, where nearly 200 countries take decisions by consensus, but also in smaller groups of countries who are willing to move faster to tackle global warming.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 11:33 AM.