COP25 talks

With the warnings from the UN getting stronger and the climate protest movement getting stronger, action on the part of governments to mitigate the effects of climate change has remained disappointing. At the end of another UN climate summit, a number of major states continue to resist pressure to increase their efforts to combat global warming. This is not a surprise in itself given that the list of resistant countries includes the US, Brazil, China, Australia and Saudi Arabia. Most of the countries have made their opposition on climate change known. The US was the first to pull out of the Paris climate accord under the Trump administration -- and one can remain certain that there is little political will in the US to take action on climate change.The trouble is that the list includes two of the world’s biggest economies -- the US and China -- which remain critical to combat climate change. Without their collective effort, there is little chance of the world meeting the targets set to restrict climate change. The refusal to believe the scientific community as well as millions of protesters will no doubt affect us later. In the concluding draft of the COP25 talks, the conference only endorsed a declaration on the urgent need to close the gap between existing emission pledges and the temperatures goals set in Paris. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had called for increasing targets before the conference, which has led to him declaring the outcome to be disappointing.If anything, the usually silent developing countries had asked for more explicit language on the importance of submitting bolder pledges. This is a recognition that the developing world faces the challenge of climate change in a much more stark way, and much of the responsibility lies with the developed world of reducing emissions to benefit all. With the next summit set for Glasgow in November next year, the task of persuading countries to submit bolder plans lies with British PM Boris Johnson. This is not a good sign, since Johnson is considered to be a climate sceptic. It is clear that in Madrid the international community has lost an opportunity to show that it wants to tackle the climate crisis. While the EU has reached an agreement to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, action itself has been limited. The bigger problem, however, for now is the countries that are refusing to act.

from The News International - Editorial https://ift.tt/2sTM2rt