The climate summit has left us ‘cold’.
To the disappointment of all those who had their expectations deposited in this climate summit: COP25 has been unable to reach any agreement on the distribution of the reduction of emissions and the exchanges of CO2 emission rights , which was one of the issues that most concerned experts, and that will be key in international politics for years to come.
After 12 days of talks, last Saturday the countries tried to reach an agreement under pressure from whoever plays in injury time.
Veteran observers of the UN climate talks were stunned by the state of play almost 24 hours after the negotiations had closed. Finally, many social agents believe that the states have not achieved what was expected of them:
“We seem to be backtracking on the ambition issue when we should call for a quantum leap in the other direction,” said Marshall Islands climate envoy Tina Stege.
In the opinion of Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists: ” I have never seen such a great disconnect between what science requires and what the people of the world demand , compared to what negotiations are achieving. climatic ”.
For his part, according to Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, referring to the Paris climate treaty: “The only thing that gave us hope in Paris was that they promised that the agreement will be strengthened over time. If that is not fulfilled, Madrid will have failed “.
As published by the portal The conversation , the result is that the Paris agreements become dead paper again . And that the objective of this summit was to update the commitments for the year 2020 and “be more ambitious.”
What does this ambition translate into? It is not clear. Commitments are useless if these promises are not translated into action.
This statistic shows the comparison of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for 2008 and 2018 in the selected countries. / Source: Statista
Some of the most polluting countries are not willing to collaborate
It’s ironic : the push for carbon reduction plans is led by the least developed and small island states, along with the European Union; and not by the number one countries in polluting gas emissions.
The United States, Australia and Saudi Arabia have been considered by the rest of the countries as the ‘consensus blockers’ for all countries to take a step forward.
Meanwhile, China and India (which are, respectively, the world’s first and third global carbon emitters) have made it clear that they do not see the need to improve their current emission reduction plans, which will run until 2030.
Instead, these emerging giants have chosen to emphasize the historic responsibility of rich nations to lead the way and provide financing to poor countries.
Negotiations on the carbon market at a standstill
The COP25 summit was also set to finalize a chapter on carbon markets in the Paris regulation, which will take effect next year. But, as published by the AFP news agency, a complicated discussion about how to structure markets, and deal with the carbon credits left over from the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2020, has come to a standstill and may be subject to new conversations next year.
United States, the great villain
The United States, which is leaving the landmark Paris climate accord next year, has been accused of conspiring against a number of issues vital to climate-vulnerable nations. Among them, the so-called “loss and damage” financing, that is, the agreement to help countries affected by disasters to repair and rebuild.
ActionAid charity climate leader Harjeet Singh spoke harsh words to the United States: “America continues to block the world’s efforts to help people whose lives have been damaged by climate change.”
In general the news is not very rosy. Under the Paris agreement, countries agreed in 2015 to work to limit global temperature increases “well below” 2ºC through a series of pledges of voluntary actions that increase over time.
But, after this summit, and even if the nations in Madrid did the impossible to implement their promises, the Earth is already on its way to warming more than 3ºC by the year 2100.
In the words of Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa: “If there was a moment in history when I would say that governments were annoyed, I would say that today in Madrid, governments are very annoyed. People all over the world must rise to save the planet. “
