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Sunday, December 15, 2019

COP25 in Madrid: any achievements?

COP25 was closed with feeling of big disappointment among majority of participants. Member states failed to come to agreements regarding critically important issues, including set up  of  global carbon trading system and a system to accumulate and transfer new finance to countries facing  devastating impacts of climate change.
According to Paris Agreement, countries need to revisit their climate pledges by 2020. However, China and Brazil opposed placing any obligation on countries to submit enhanced pledges next year, arguing it should be each country’s own decision. Small island countries supported by EU countries insisted on inclusion of a clear call for enhanced ambition in 2020.
 Despite of disagreements, 80 countries have already  confirmed their plans to enhance their climate pledges next year. The EU agreed to a “climate neutral” target for 2050, joining 73 countries who have signed up to a similar goal.
Conference was supposed to approve a set of new rules governing the global carbon market (which previously  were planned to be agreed on last year during COP24). Because of many disagreements, including those related to double counting of emissions reductions and trading of Kyoto-era credits, the negotiations deadlocked and were again postponed.  At the same time, group of 31 countries led by Costa Rica, suggested the ‘San Jose principles’, a set of minimum standards for ensuring the integrity of the global carbon market