Baku. TurkicWorld:

It is critical to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels as quickly as possible, EU Council President Charles Michel said, TurkicWorld reports.

He spoke at the World Summit on Climate Action organized on the sidelines of the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - COP28.

"We must support the goal of keeping the warming process within 1.5 degrees. And we must break our reliance on fossil fuels as quickly as possible; otherwise, our shared future will be jeopardized. This summit is essentially a moral litmus test: we will assess how well we are meeting our Paris Agreement commitments around the world. Above all, we must do more and act quickly," he said.

Michel stressed that the European Union is fully committed to this issue.

"We aim to continue to take a leading role in this. Our development agenda includes combating climate change. We are executing a set of actions to fundamentally shift our economic development paradigm as a result of the Green Deal and the revision of the 55 percent target. As a result, we have made progress by cutting emissions by 30 percent since 1990. We believe that the carbon pricing mechanism will remain on track, and we encourage others to join us. We are striving to triple our use of renewable energy and double our energy efficiency. We are committed to our collaboration commitments for a just energy transition," he said.

Michel said the EU also supports reform of the Bretton Woods institutions.

"We must bring more fairness, trust, and inclusivity. The European Union is a trustworthy and dedicated partner. The coming decade will be critical, and we are absolutely committed to working with everyone of you to defend humanity," he concluded.