Today’s Environment Council will be crucial on the road to the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai at the end of the year (COP28). Firstly, the member states want to define their negotiating mandate for the COP. It is, so to speak, the guideline with which the EU negotiators will meet the representatives of other countries in Dubai. And it also reflects the level of ambition. However, the EU will also have to be measured against this paper in Dubai: It cannot credibly demand from others what the paper does not contain.