UN climate talks in limbo with no agreement on draft final text

Key sticking point remains how far each nation is willing to go

People shouting slogans during a march organised by the Fridays for Future movement of school students outside the COP25 climate talks congress in Madrid on Friday.
People shouting slogans during a march organised by the Fridays for Future movement of school students outside the COP25 climate talks congress in Madrid on Friday. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADRID • A United Nations climate summit in Madrid was facing failure yesterday after all-night negotiations between countries left them more divided than ever over how to fight global warming and pay for its ravages.

Delegates from rich nations, emerging giants and the world's poorest countries all objected to a draft final text unveiled by host Chile in a botched attempt to find common ground as talks dragged on beyond the official deadline with no end in sight.

Following a year of climate-related catastrophes, including deadly storms, flooding and wildfires, as well as weekly strikes by millions of young people, negotiations in Madrid were meant to send out a clear signal of governments' willingness to tackle the crisis.

The COP25 summit also aimed to finalise the rule book of the landmark 2015 Paris accord, which goes into effect next year.

Instead, delegates yesterday were exasperated at what they called backward steps on the key political issue - how far each nation is willing to go to help stave off climate catastrophe.

"All the references to science have gotten weaker, all references to enhancing the (ambition) have gone, it seems we prefer to look backward rather than looking forward," Mr Carlos Fuller, head of the Alliance of Small Island States negotiating bloc, said in a plenary of the draft COP 25 final text.

Even after marathon talks between ministers, observers and delegates told Agence France-Presse that there were still significant splits on a number of issues.

Old divisions between rich polluters and developing nations re-emerged in Madrid over how much they should slash greenhouse gas emissions by, and how to pay the trillions needed for humanity to adapt to a climate-addled world.

Newer fissures, meanwhile, between poor, climate-vulnerable nations and emerging giants such as China and India - the world's No. 1 and No. 4 emitters, respectively - also blocked progress.

In yesterday morning's public discussions, additional discord surfaced on how nations should refer to a string of scientific assessments of the state of the planet.

But the bottom-line ask for climate-vulnerable nations remains some signal that all countries are willing to improve on emissions reduction commitments to prevent the world from careening towards runaway global warming.

Chile's Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt, who is chairing the two-week talks in Madrid, urged officials from almost 200 countries to recognise the "overall balance" of the latest draft agreements hammered out the night before.

"We must show the outside world that we deliver," she said, as officials prepared to hunker down for further negotiations.

But observers and environmental groups expressed outrage at the current proposals, saying they risked undoing or stalling on commitments made in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

"The latest version of the Paris Agreement decision text put forward by the Chilean presidency is totally unacceptable," said Mr Alden Meyer, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a veteran UN talks observer.

"It has no call for countries to enhance the ambition of their emissions reduction commitments."

The United States, which is leaving the landmark Paris climate deal next year, was accused of playing spoiler on a number of issues vital to climate-vulnerable nations, including so-called "loss and damage" funding.

"The US has not come here in good faith," said Mr Harjeet Singh, climate lead with charity ActionAid. "They continue to block the world's efforts to help people whose lives have been turned upside down by climate change."

A number of countries were sticking to their own red lines yesterday, further imperilling the talks.

The Paris deal enjoins nations to limit global warming to "well below" 2 deg C from pre-industrial levels. But even if nations in Madrid snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and agree to implement their pledges, the earth is on course to warm more than 3 deg C by 2100.

"It is time for this process to prove that it is worth something," said the delegation of Colombia.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on December 15, 2019, with the headline UN climate talks in limbo with no agreement on draft final text. Subscribe