As negotiators in New York sift through hundreds of pages of ideas for the conference, Karl Falkenberg, the European Commission’s chief of the environmental directorate, said in Brussels that the EU was committed to its goals despite fierce opposition to some of its positions.

The EU heads to the Rio de Janeiro conference in June hoping to make a green economy based on sustainable growth one of its pillars, while also seeking to give the UN Environment Programme and possibly other UN agencies more power to oversee and enforce treaties.

But he acknowledged that “there are major questions” from other negotiators about the EU’s positions.