UN Climate Change Conference at Madrid was a flop show, say experts

Vibha Sharma

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Tribune News Sercvice

New Delhi, December 17

The recently-concluded Conference of Parties (COP 25)—the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference at Madrid and the final COP before the defining year of 2020—was supposed to be the “springboard” ahead of the crucial 2020 deadline established by the Paris Agreement when nations will submit new climate action plans to limit global warming and boost climate action financing.

However, the longest UN climate talks on record that ended with what many experts/activists termed a “compromise” deal, are now being called a “zero-impact flop show” where nations failed, rather refused to arrive at any “positive outcomes”, including rules to set up the crucial global carbon trading system and channel new finance to countries facing the impacts.

“COP 25 was a big flop, a zero-impact meeting,” says environmentalist Soumya Dutta, just back from Madrid that hosted the high-profile event from which much was expected.

Professor Emeritus CK Varshney, Environmental Sciences, JNU, agrees. “The presidency could not bring the talks to any fruitful resolution on issues, especially on regulation of carbon markets and linking climate financing to loss and damage. The Paris Agreement has become weak and requires re-commitment by countries, that barely partially succeeded,” he said.

The final declaration called for fresh proposals on pledges on reducing carbon emissions to be in place by COP 26 in Glasgow next year.  The process of withdrawal of the US from the agreement further had a dampening effect on COP 25 and so did lack of interest by major countries like Australia, Canada and China, according to Varshney.

“Either they (the US, Australia, etc)  have withdrawn or are in the process. So far as India is concerned, its stance was clear. ‘We (India) are doing a lot. So do not expect any more from us.’ In any case, bigger emitters are not doing anything” adds Dutta.

So have the climate change events lost their meaning and their relevance, as indicates the outcome of COP 25?

Dutta says COP 25 was a “flop” but that doesn’t mean other climate conferences did not bear fruit. “For example, when participating nations adopted the Bali Road Map or COP 21 at Paris where the landmark agreement was drawn. But I agree the world would have been in a better position without COP 25,” he says,

“Except EU committing to a net-zero status by 2050 (not 2030) no other major emitters, including China, the US and Australia, committed to/indicated a strong desire to any significant improvement in their older NDCs or pledges.

“The US (second-largest gross emitter) continued to work on withdrawing even from mild pledges of Paris Agreement.

“Australia, Canada, Poland (though in EU and bound by  laws and commitments) continue to play around with no commitment on their coal and oil expansions. I would say that it was ditto for India, though its per capita emissions are by far the lowest,” says Dutta.

According to Dutta, the only positives from this COP were strong messages from scientific communities that the crisis is unfolding faster than previously envisaged and that political-economic actions are nowhere near adequate to tackle. Plus the visible anger from youth of various movements who have realised that in spite of their protests nothing new has been happening in such meetings and that governments and businesses are not doing enough.