CLIMATE CHANGE: COP25 – UN negotiators ‘playing politics’ amid global crisis

CLIMATE CHANGE: COP25 – UN negotiators ‘playing politics’ amid global crisis By Iain Fraser – Consultant Editor Reporting from Madrid, Spain COP25: The UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 which runs until 13 December 2019 was beset with problems before the conference even started with the incumbent Presidency under the stewardship of the Government of Chile having to cancel the original venue due to public dissent and disorder and having to accept Spains last minute offer to host the event on their behalf inb Madrid. The conference was designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. Following agreement on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement at COP 24 in Poland last year, a key objective is to complete several matters with respect to the full operationalization of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

“There is frustration that countries are focussing on trying to get advantages in the talks, instead of working together to increase ambition.”

However, the talks in Madrid, Spain and now in their final week, are bogged down with semantics as key countries seek to delay efforts to increase their pledges, while UN negotiators have been accused of “playing politics” while the climate crisis grows with the central question of increasing country pledges to cut their carbon being pushed aside as negotiators resort to protecting national interests. Here in Madrid a group of countries including China, India and Saudi Arabia are pushing for these pre-2020 commitments be adhered to – even if it means achieving them post-2020. Commentators believe this is partly a negotiating tactic designed to put pressure on richer nations in any discussions about improving pledges in the period after 2020. Image Credit: IFEMA