United Nations climate talks ended early Sunday in Madrid with big polluting countries blocking an agreement to enhance climate targets and deferring until next year a set of rules on international carbon trading.
The United States, which is planning to abandon the Paris climate agreement next year and thus may have participated in the climate negotiations for the last time, resisted an agreement on how to compensate poor countries for the economic losses they suffer from climate catastrophes, though there was a general endorsement of finding a way to help them. At issue was whether historic polluters like the United States could be held liable in the future.
The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, offered an unusually blunt assessment of the 25th annual climate negotiations, formally known as the Conference of Parties. “I am disappointed with the results of #COP25,” he said on Twitter. “The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation & finance to tackle the climate crisis.”
The climate talks, which had been scheduled to end on Friday, went on for an extra two days, making this year’s session the longest ever. They demonstrated the vast gaps between what scientists say the world needs and what the world’s most powerful leaders are prepared to even discuss, let alone do.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/climate/cop25-un-climate-talks-madrid.html
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