EU confirms COP21 position and pledges peak emissions by 2020

European Union ministers finalised their negotiating position on Friday for this years crucial United Nations Climate Change Conference and pledged to reach peak carbon emissions by 2020.

Negotiators overcame objections from Poland who are particularly reliant on coal and confirmed a strong mandate in the build up to the international climate meeting in Paris in December.

Elections are taking place in Poland in October which has complicated the discussions as the Law and Justice Party has been campaigning on a pledge to protect the coal industry and resist EU environment law.

Officials from the EU, which comprises 28-member states, said that Poland agreed to text changes and a compromise to limit their isolation.

Carole Dieschbourg, environment minister for Luxembourg, said: "It is a compromise ... but it will lead the way to an ambitious, robust, dynamic climate agreement."

European Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said the EU would be "a deal-maker, not a deal-taker" at the 21st Session to the Conference of the Parties (COP21) in the French capital that runs from 30 November to 11 December when a global climate deal is due to be signed by the 197 member states of the UN.

The EU has submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) climate pledge to the UN and has promised to reduce emissions by at least 40 per cent compared to 1990 levels.

The mandate agreed on Friday says greenhouse gas emissions need to peak by 2020 at the latest and be reduced by at least 50 per cent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.

The new agreement also includes five-year reviews to ensure progress is being made and says that all parties must pursue "a long-term vision of global and sustainable climate neutrality".

As the host of the COP21 meeting, France was particularly enthusiastic for a deal to be reached on Friday and Segolene Royal, France's Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, said EU states had shown "very strong unity".