KATOWICE, Poland, Dec 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Nations on Sunday struck a deal
to breathe life into the landmark 2015 Paris climate treaty after marathon UN
talks that failed to match the ambition the world’s most vulnerable countries
need to avert dangerous global warming.
Delegates from nearly 200 states finalised a common rule book designed to
deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below
two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).
“Putting together the Paris agreement work programme is a big
responsibility,” said COP24 president Michal Kurtyka as he gavelled through
the deal after talks in Poland that ran deep into overtime.
“It has been a long road. We did our best to leave no one behind.”
But states already dealing with devastating floods, droughts and extreme
weather made worse by climate change said the package agreed in the mining
city of Katowice lacked the bold ambition to cut emissions the world needed.
Egyptian ambassador Wael Aboulmagd, chair of the developing nations G77
plus China negotiating bloc, said the rule book saw the “urgent adaptation
needs of developing countries relegated to a second-class status.”
Executive director of Greenpeace Jennifer Morgan said: “We continue to
witness an irresponsible divide between the vulnerable island states and
impoverished countries pitted against those who would block climate action or
who are immorally failing to act fast enough.”
The final decision text was repeatedly delayed as negotiators sought
guidelines that could ward off the worst threats posed by the heating planet
while protecting the economies of rich and poor nations alike.
“Without a clear rulebook, we won’t see how countries are tracking, whether
they are actually doing what they say they are doing,” Canada’s Environment
Minister Catherine McKenna told AFP.
At their heart, negotiations were about how each nation funds action to
mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as how those actions are
reported.
– Report controversy –
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has recently backed down on anti-
pollution fuel tax hikes in the face of country-wide “yellow vest” protests,
said France must “show the way” as he welcomed the progress made at the
talks.
“The international community remains committed to the fight against climate
change,” he tweeted on Sunday.
“Congratulations to the UN, scientists, NGOs and all negotiators. France
and Europe must show the way. The fight goes on.”
Developing nations had wanted more clarity from richer ones over how the
future climate fight will be funded and pushed for so-called “loss and
damage” measures.
This would see richer countries giving money now to help deal with the
effects of climate change many vulnerable states are already experiencing.
Another contentious issue was the integrity of carbon markets, looking
ahead to the day when the patchwork of distinct exchanges — in China, the
Europe Union, parts of the United States — may be joined up in a global
system.
The Paris Agreement calls for setting up a mechanism to guard against
practices, such as double counting emissions savings, that could undermine
such a market.
A major sticking point, delegates eventually agreed Saturday to kick the
issue down the road until next year.
One veteran observer told AFP that Poland’s presidency at COP24 had left
many countries out of the process and presented at-risk nations with a “take
it or leave it” deal.
Progress had “been held up by Brazil, when it should have been held up by
the small islands. It’s tragic.”
One of the largest disappointments for countries of all wealths and sizes
was the lack of ambition to reduce emissions shown in the final COP24 text.
Most nations wanted the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) to form a key part of future planning.
– ‘The system must change’ –
It highlighted the need to slash carbon pollution by nearly half before
2030 in order to hit the 1.5C target.
But the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected, leading to watered-
down wording.
The final statement from the Polish COP24 presidency welcomed “the timely
conclusion” of the report and invited “parties to make use of it” — hardly
the ringing endorsement many nations had called for.
“There’s been a shocking lack of response to the 1.5 report,” Greenpeace’s
Morgan, told AFP.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who made three trips to Katowice
over the course of the talks, said the world’s climate fight was just
beginning.
“From now on my five priorities will be: Ambition, ambition, ambition,
ambition, ambition,” he said in a message read out by UN climate chief
Patricia Espinosa.
With the political climate process sputtering on well into its third decade
as emissions rise remorselessly, activists have stepped up grassroots
campaigns of civil disobedience to speed up action.
“We are not a one-off protest, we are a rebellion,” a spokesman for the
Extinction Rebellion movement, which disrupted at least one ministerial event
at the COP, told AFP.
“We are organising for repeated disruption, and we are targeting our
governments, calling for the system change needed to deal with the crisis
that we are facing.”