The annual UN climate conference, COP25 in Madrid, became the longest on record when it concluded on December 15, 2019, following more than two weeks of fraught negotiations. It had been scheduled to wrap up on December 13.
According to the UN report, “Climate change is happening—the world is already 1.1°C warmer than it was at the onset of the industrial revolution, and it is already having a significant impact on the world, and on people’s lives. And if current trends persist, then global temperatures can be expected to rise by 3.2 to 3.9°C this century, which would bring wide-ranging and destructive climate impacts.” In this backdrop, the conference began on 2nd December 2019.
- The two-week long negotiations saw no agreement on major issues such as Article 6, loss and damage, and long term finance.
- The were supposed to finalise the “rulebook” of the Paris Agreement – the operating manual needed when it takes effect in 2020 – by settling on rules for carbon markets and other forms of international cooperation under “Article 6” of the deal. However no consensus was reached.
- Despite holding the longest climate talks ever in 25 nearly annual editions, the sleep-deprived negotiators, left one of the thorniest issues for next year summit COP26 in Glasgow in UK – how to deal with carbon emissions.
- At COP25, negotiators were charged with reviewing the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM), which was established in 2013 to deal with this kind of “loss and damage”.
European Green Deal
- On 12-13 December, EU heads of state met in Brussels and agreed to make the bloc “climate neutral” by 2050. Despite resistance from Poland, which has until next summer to come onboard, the European Commission revealed a “European Green Deal”, which, if it becomes law, will commit at least 25% of the EU’s long-term budget to climate action. Ursula von der Leyen, the new European Commission president, described it as Europe’s “man on the Moon” moment.
- The deal also includes a proposed timetable for boosting the EU’s NDC target for 2030, from its current aim of cutting emissions to at least 40% below 1990 levels, to a higher target of “at least 50% and towards 55%”.
