The black points on the global climate agreement that does not convince experts

197 countries close to the climate summit with an agreement of minimum

The block of countries that refuse to accept the alert scientific

Thus began the Climate Summit in Katowice 2018

The Climate Summit in 2018, ended on the night of Saturday December 15, a partial agreement that sets out the decisions of 197 countries. The new pact, designed to implement the Paris Agreement in 2020, has been postponed to new encounters some issues of disagreement, and delayed, for up to 24 hours, the final resolution of this conference held in Katowice, Poland.

The negotiations, which kicked off the 3 of December, have been marked by the opposition of the oil-producing countries (USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) to support the scientific report prepared by the panel of experts IPCC, which has been used as a basis for establishing the sane. The study warns of the serious consequences that he will suffer the Land of not reducing greenhouse gases and limiting global warming to 1.5 ° C above the temperature that the planet had before the industrial era. The text includes the recommendation to take urgent measures to alleviate the extreme weather events that already affect the population, ecosystems and global biodiversity.

Unattended the urgency demanded by scientific experts

In this latest agreement, Katowice (the Conference of the Parties, COP24) not all countries have accepted the indications of the scientists. It is in the air the urgent commitment to meet them. The agreement “invites” states, not “forces”, to review and increase the ambition who want to achieve to fulfill what scientists warn. This has been one of the great pitfalls of the discussion, with a block demanding that I wanted to ambitious measures (led by Europe) and another that called for flexibility.

In a statement sent to THE WORLD, Johan Rockström, the scientist who co-directs the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (a member institution of the IPCC) has said, “my biggest concern is that the Summit of the United Nations failed to align these ambitions with the science, in particular, the need to make clear that the global emissions of fossil fuels must be reduced by a half in 2030 to keep in line with the IPCC report “. This aspect is going to be difficult to meet since there has not been a global consensus and it will take more meetings to resolve the issue.

The opinion of Rockström agree with Ottmar Edenhofer, an economist climate, co-director of the center and director of the Institute Mercator for the Investigation of the Global Commons and Climate Change. “The world needs something more than goals of climate policy and processes, you need concrete measures that need to be taken now. Climate change can no longer be considered simply as the greatest market failure of all time, with the continuous increase of global emissions of gases of greenhouse effect after years of negotiation, has also become a government failure unprecedented”, has referred to this medium. Edenhofer has also commented that, through appropriate policy measures, such as fixing the effective price of CO2, “governments have to build a new relationship of trust with the citizens. The price of carbon may not solve everything”.

Both of you have highlighted, however, that the agreement of Katowice is a “relief” because “the countries recognize the need for a global collaboration to address the global climate crisis”.

A book of rules flexible

In the COP24, on the contrary, it has been advanced in a book of standard rules that determines the common rules that they must follow the countries “invited” to meet them. This is one of the positive aspects of the new agreement, the conclusion of a complicated and technical manual that will serve each country’s protocol of action. Now it depends on them in what proportion to apply it and in that sense, has founded a new coalition that is committed to follow fully what is recommended by scientists and by the more ambitious goals to combat climate change.

this Is the newly christened Coalition of Ambition High and make up the European Union, Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Fiji, Grenada, Jamaica, Macedonia, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway and Saint Lucia. The coalition has been driven by the president of the Marshall Islands and the european energy commissioner, Miguel Arias Cañete.

Brazil has requested a compensation for the Amazon

Another contentious issue addressed in Katowice is the way in which it calculated the emissions of gases. Brazil showed to be dissatisfied with it and blocked the end of the summit, according to sources who have participated in the negotiations.

Brazil has a vast expanse of tropical forest and subtropical climates, which contributes to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere of the planet. And despite how vulnerable he is to the action of the man the amazon region, because it strips at high speed, the brazilian delegation has requested a compensation for it and has presented discrepancies concerning the computation of net which determines their emissions, the so-called credits of carbon dioxide.

Indonesia, an example of which escapes him at the COP24

Indonesia, one of the most contaminating countries in the world, is a republic island that is rich in tropical rainforest and biodiversity. Like Brazil, its forests help reduce atmospheric CO2 and, in the same way that happens to the south american country, deforestation is threatening its already poor ecological balance. It is also one of the parts for which you have not closed a commitment that will help reduce emissions.

a Stop to deforestation is a natural solution to contribute to 37 per cent of the target global climate. However, “the agreement of Indonesia (NDC) still allows you to deforest an area the size of Belgium up to 2030. Therefore, the indonesian government needs to review its NDC immediately to address this serious mistake”, he alerted to this journal Hans Nicholas Jong, environmental journalist of the means of dissemination of scientific information Mongabay in Jakarta (Indonesia).

Accounting does not resolved to the carbon

The carbon credits (the right to emit one tonne of CO2) is a well-redeemable listed on the market and can be traded between those who emit more (they pay for it) and those who make less. The mechanism holds the various traps in their count and there are cases in which a single bond is counted more than once in different registers or different entities count it as yours. The balance end is not real and this is has attempted to regulate with a standard to avoid duplication.

The International Association of Emissions Trading (IETA) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) have approved the development of this standard of international accounting. However, even if you try to avoid the double counting that had been practicing up to now in the carbon markets, the agreement gives a window of time that gives rise to ambiguities

Funding and vulnerable countries

The mechanisms of financing have been one of the sensitive points of the agreement. In this summit has been approved to increase the contributions. The COP24 has promised to an Adaptation Fund of $ 129 million, while the Fund for the Least Developed Countries will be 28.2 million of dollars more. On the other hand, the Green Climate Fund builds up because 10.300 million dollars.

however, the most vulnerable countries requested a game of subsidies exclusively to cover the damages caused by climate change. The Paris Agreement itself specifies a particular category in this respect, which had not been done specifically in the new text approved in Katowice.

Bangladesh, one of the countries at risk due to sea level rise, has developed a national pilot project on loss and damage and invites the rest of the world to participate in it.

Chile will host the COP25 after the controversy of Poland

Brazil, which in principle is postulated to hold the next edition of the summit, withdrew his candidacy before the start of the COP24 and after the new president of Jair Bolsonaro. The COP25 will be held next year in Santiago de Chile, preceded by a pre-meeting that will take place in Costa Rica.

Poland, the host country of the summit that has just finished, has left a bitter mark on the negotiations this year. Very dependent on coal, so you need to make a great effort to renew your energy model, has maintained a position contrary to that of the rest of the European Union to increase the ambition of the agreements and it is one of the responsible that some decisions are postponed to the edition of 2019.

So value the Ngos, the final resolution of the summit

Numerous non-governmental organizations have been present in Katowice and have informed this medium, in real time, the progress of the negotiations. These are his impressions on the agreement:

“The COP24 has not collected the ambition and the commitments of the countries to increase climate action. Now it is key that the countries attending the UN summit in September with a few more ambitious goals. At the national level the government of Pedro Sánchez must pass a law and plans for energy and climate change, to accelerate the energy transition by beginning to mark the closing of the thermal coal in 2025 as “very late”. Tatiana Nuño, head of energy and climate change for Greenpeace in Spain.

“The lack of tools, commitment, ambition and the eternal quest for a consensus, do not respond to the urgency of climate change and puts into question the ability of the United Nations to respond to the greatest challenge that we will face as humanity. The texts presented do not clearly establish the process needed to increase the ambition. You lose another year”. Javier Andaluz, head of the campaign climate of Ecologists in Action.

“Mark a step necessary at the time of finalizing the Agreement in Paris, in the form of a common regulation. The parties now have some clearer indications of how to implement the agreement. But there is a very important problem: the absence of a call clear in the text, the ambition and the urgency of the climate emergencies. Some Pacific countries are literally disappearing. The IPCC report says that we have to reduce global emissions by 45% by 2030 in order to limit the temperature to 1.5 ºC. But the final decision is not called directly to all the countries to increase the ambition and the commitment in the reduction of emissions. That depends on each one”. David Howell, head of Environmental Governance of SEO/BirdLife.

“The feeling our it is bittersweet. The summit has made progress but has failed the political will to move forward with the urgency and ambition that is needed before the severity of the problem. Lack the urgency of undertaking actions to fight against climate change much more ambitious than we have, that lead us to an increase of temperature above 1.5 ° C according to the IPCC. In Spain, it seems to us well to the change of policy in the fight against climate change. We urge you to begin to process because the Law of Climate Change and Energy Transition and open a process of public participation both for the law as for the National Plan of Energy and Climate.” Mar Asuncion, head of Climate and Energy of the World wide Fund for Nature (WWF Spain).

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