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COP25 ends with marginal progress
While the draft texts released on Friday afternoon (Madrid time) on some these issues showed marginal progress, the overall understanding was that the COP failed to recognise the urgency of the climate crisis underlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) at Madrid ended without closure on the most important issues—new carbon markets, enhanced ambition by developed countries to meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping global mean temperature rise under 2 degrees, and compensating vulnerable countries for loss and damage.
While the draft texts released on Friday afternoon (Madrid time) on some these issues showed marginal progress, the overall understanding was that the COP failed to recognise the urgency of the climate crisis underlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“Some issues have progressed more than others. I request co-facilitators to work overnight. Please work on the text for review of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage and Article 6 (pertaining to carbon markets). We only have a few hours left to get to an agreement. We will take stock on landing zones,” said Carolina Schmidt, COP25 President during the final stock-taking on the progress at COP. New texts will be published on Saturday.
India’s chief negotiator Ravi Shankar Prasad flagged important unresolved concerns for India including upholding the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibility (based on different capabilities of economies) and asked that parties actions should be commensurate with their national circumstances. “It is implementation of commitments, fulfilling of past targets which will lead to higher ambition. Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are country driven and therefore there is no mandate on a top down direction. Equity and Common But Differing Responsibilities are the bedrock of the Paris Agreement which should be respected,” he said, referring to lack of implementation of pre-2020 commitments by developed countries and indicating that India may not enhance its NDC in 2020 as this is already 2 degrees compatible as per Climate Action Tracker’s assessment.
The draft text on carbon markets was weak as of Friday and heavily bracketed because the issue of carry-over of carbon credits from the clean development mechanism under Kyoto Protocol and the environmental integrity of the new markets to achieve a real reduction in greenhouse gas emissions remained unresolved. “Article 6, the spotlight of COP25, is the only part of the Paris Agreement that directly interacts with the private sector. Despite the last-minute effort towards bridging the gap, the gavel did not fall on the key decision on carry over,” said Chirag Gajjar, lead mitigation, climate at World Resources Institute (WRI).
The draft text on how vulnerable nations will be compensated for irreversible impacts of climate change such as sea level rise, biodiversity loss or extreme weather events remained very weak on finance. “The language is weak, its not binding. It talks about generating financial support from existing resources and uses words like ‘urges’ and ‘scale up’ instead of ‘decide’ or ‘recognise.’ The text has not delivered what was expected of it. The US is holding even this text hostage as it does not want any liability,” said Harjeet Singh, global lead on climate change for ActionAid.
The master draft text which summarises all the decisions taken at the COP also lacks ambition and fails to give its due to warnings from climate scientists according to leaders from vulnerable countries and the Climate Ambition Alliance (group of countries willing to enhance NDCs to meet the Paris goal).
“The big message is that we will leave Madrid with a very clear call to raise ambition in line with the IPCC special report on 1.5 degree global warming. We are concerned that framing of ambition in the current text is weak. We stress science is not negotiable and should guide our work. We want the highest standard of environmental integrity in carbon markets,” said delegate representing Marshall Islands and the Alliance.
The message from the Alliance was that US, Australia and Brazil were stalling progress on key issues.
Some felt the COP added to the problem of global warming by way of carbon emissions with over 26,000 delegates, civil society members and media gathered over two weeks for one of the biggest annual climate jamborees (as many call it), which was expected to get the big polluters on board to raise their ambition to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global mean temperature rise under 2 degrees.
Australian climate scientist Bill Hare said in an interview to Democracy Now: “It’s very upsetting to find your predictions coming true and to find politicians failing to take action on it. People coming here are angry. I have seen more tears at this COP than I have seen at the previous 24 COPs.”
