Stalled UN climate conference raise 'disappointment'
December 14, 2019
Discussions continued in Madrid to try to resolve a split between rich and poor nations over climate funding and cooperation rules. Many delegates said they were "disappointed" by weak commitments to climate protection.
Image: Reuters/N. Doce
Advertisement
The COP 25 UN climate conference in Madrid remained deadlocked on Sunday, more than 40 hours after the two-week talks had been scheduled to end.
Negotiations to overcome several rifts over how to tackle the climate crisis — and who should pay for it — continued on Saturday and Sunday, amid concerns they may end in failure.
Several countries — wealthy, emerging and poor nations — objected to a draft final text unveiled by host Chile in a botched attempt to find common ground. Many of the delegates expressed disappointment over the objections put forward and the points that were dropped as the talks crawled towards a unified end.
Representatives from 200 nations have been meeting in the Spanish capital to finalize the rulebook for the 2015 Paris climate accord, which calls for limiting global temperature rises to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius. The talks were moved to Madrid because of ongoing unrest in the Latin American country.
Chilean officials presiding over this year's UN climate talks said Saturday they plan to propose a compromising strategy to end the deadlock on key issues.
"It's impossible to have a consensus outcome if you don't compromise,'' Chilean diplomat Andres Landerretche told reporters on Saturday.
Landerretche said they did not want to postpone some decisions until next year: "We don't foresee any suspension. We are working with a view toward finishing our work today.''
But observers said it would be difficult to overcome the obstacles.
How is climate change affecting Europe?
The European Parliament has declared a "climate emergency" as Europe has been experiencing extreme weather events ranging from record-breaking heat waves to damaging floods. Is climate change to blame?
Image: picture-alliance/S. Ziese
Record-setting heat waves
The summer of 2019 saw heat records in Europe broken across the continent. In July, Germany recorded its highest temperature ever at 42.6 C (108 F). France broke its heat record twice in 2019, the highest temperature measuring 46.C (114.8 F) in July. Climate change increases the frequency of heat waves.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Yaghobzadeh
Venice under water
In November 2019, the Italian archipelago city of Venice experienced multiple flooding events and the high water mark of 1.5 meters was reached three times in one week for the first time in recorded history. Projected sea level rise due to climate change could make these events more likely in the future.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Medina
Wildfires burning Spain
The same heat wave that brought record temperatures to France sparked the worst wildfires to hit Spain in 20 years. On the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, wildfires in August decimated a national park on the popular tourist island. Hotter temperatures and drier air due to climate change increase the risk of fires.
Image: Reuters/B. Suarez
German forests dying
A combination of drought, storms and extreme heat is depleting Germany's forests. According to BDF, a forest advocacy group, in Germany, more than 1 million established trees have died since 2018. "These are no longer single unusual weather events. That is climate change," said a BDF representative.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Frey
Disappearing glaciers in the Alps
A glacier on the Italian side of Mont Blanc experienced accelerated melting in 2019. And enthusiasts held a "funeral" for the Pizol glacier in the Swiss Alps, which has almost completely disappeared. Scientists say climate change accelerates glacial melting in the Alps.
Image: AFP/F. Coffrini
Drought affecting food production
Two consecutive years of drought in Germany have hit farmers hard. In 2018, record drought caused major crop failures, and heat waves in 2019 also damaged crops. "Climate change means more frequent droughts and extreme weather events in Germany,"said German Weather Service Vice President Paul Becker.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Hoppe
6 images1 | 6
"I've been attending these climate negotiations since they first started in 1991, but never have I seen the almost total disconnection we've seen here ... in Madrid between what the science requires and the people of the world demand, and what the climate negotiators are delivering,'' said Alden Meyer, a climate policy specialist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Huge emissions drop required
This month, the UN said that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius required a drop in emissions of over 7% annually to 2030. Scientists have warned that the window to prevent the Earth's climate hitting irreversible tipping points is fast closing.
Nations have still not agreed how to fund climate change measures or what rules will govern international cooperation, with deep disagreements emerging between rich polluters and developing nations.
"We have made it very far, but the question of how to develop an international C02 market is very complicated," German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze told DW.
Others, however, rejected the notion that substantial progress had been made during negotiations in Madrid.
Fridays for Future activist Greta Thunberg denounced world leaders for the lack of progress at the COP 25 talks.
"We make sure to put them against the wall and that they have to do their job and protect our future," Thunberg said from the Italian city of Turin, where she was continuing to lead weekly school strikes.
Climate change strikes worldwide — in pictures
Another round of global climate protests began on Friday ahead of the 12-day UN climate conference. Representatives from 200 countries are meeting in Madrid to finalize the "rulebook" for the 2015 Paris climate treaty,
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Khan
Diving in with the rest
Young activists in Berlin took a dip in the city's Spree River to demonstrate their desire for more action on climate change. Their protest took place as Germany's upper house of parliament passed a raft of measures aimed at cutting emissions. However, critics of the package said it did not go far enough.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
Wanting a new start
Thousands of protesters gathered in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to voice dissatisfaction with a perceived lack of urgency on the part of the government. Some 50,000 people took part, demanding a "new start" for the government's climate policy.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
Tide of opinion
"The climate is changing, why aren't we?" ask these protesters Rome. The historic Italian city of Venice was recently flooded, with the local mayor blaming climate change for the highest tide in 50 years. Climate protests took place in 138 Italian towns and cities, according to Fridays for Future Italia, including in major urban centers like Rome, Milan, Turin, Naples and Palermo.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Solaro
Message for the government
Activists and schoolchildren in Sydney kicked off the latest round of global protests against climate change on Friday by picketing the headquarters of Australia's ruling party. The protesters — brandishing placards that read "You're burning our future" and chanting "we will rise" — turned out as Sydney was again enveloped in toxic smoke caused by bushfires.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Khan
Koalas under threat
The protests have taken on extra urgency in Australia — the country's southeast has been devastated by hundreds of damaging bushfires in recent weeks. Wildfires and drought have left the koala bear on the verge of "functional" extinction.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Khan
Japan — a victim of extremes
Hundreds of people marched through Tokyo's Shinjuku district to show their support for the Fridays For Future movement. Japan is no exception to abnormal weather patterns around the world in recent years. The island nation has been hit by increasingly frequent typhoons, and also by hotter weather. In October, Typhoon Hagibis ripped through central and north-eastern Japan, killing scores of people.
Image: Getty Images/C. Court
Forests For Future
Demonstrations also took place in Indonesia, where – in an effort to to protect tropical
forests - the government has issued a temporary ban on permits for palm plantations. However, critics say a lack of transparency has made it difficult to evaluate the moratorium's effectiveness. The global palm oil trade has been blamed as a major contributor to climate change by causing loss of vegetation.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Ismoyo
Something in the air
In Delhi — the world's most polluted capital — students staged a march to the environment ministry carrying placards and demanding that the government declare a climate emergency. The country is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases and has 14 of the 15 most polluted cities in the world, according to a UN study.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Sankar
Targeting international talks
The protests took place as negotiators from some 200 countries prepared to meet for the COP25 climate conference in Madrid. Participants are seeking clearer rules on how to meet the requirements of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. The accord aims to limit the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
Image: Getty Images/J. McCawley
9 images1 | 9
Rich versus poor
Richer polluters such as the United States, India, China and Saudi Arabia have backed measures that simply repeat the language in the 2015 Paris accord.
But more than 80 poor and climate-vulnerable nations, backed by the EU, have insisted on going further.
"[We] will not walk away without a clear call for all countries to enhance their ambitions," said Marshall Islands climate envoy Tina Stege.
The Association of Small Island States coalition blasted Australia, the US, Canada, Russia, India, China and Brazil for "a lack of ambition that also undermines ours."
Nations are also split over "loss and damage," compensation for countries already suffering from the climate emergency.
The United States, which plans to exit the Paris agreement, has worked to block any provisions that might hold it and other developed countries responsible for climate change-related damages, which could total more than $150 billion per year by 2025, observers and diplomats have said.
EU makes pledge
The EU boosted the talks on Friday by pledging to make the bloc carbon-neutral by 2050, despite the refusal of Poland, one of the bloc's major emitters. But the European Commission stopped short of agreeing to reduce emissions by 55% or more by 2030.
Newly elected Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who also chairs the rotating European Council presidency, heralded the EU's commitment.
"I'm very happy that we could reach this common goal that Europe will become climate neutral by 2050," Marin told DW.
"We all know that we have to do more and we have to do it faster. It's about our children's future; it's about future generations," she added.
Marin hoped Poland would eventually "be on board" with the idea.
"We have all agreed that Europe will become climate neutral by 2050. It's now about … how different member states implement this. This discussion will continue next spring," she said.
