From 2 to 13 December, COP25; the 25th Conference of the Parties, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was held in Madrid, Spain, under the presidency of the Chilean government. The venue was moved from Santiago de Chile to Madrid just 4 weeks before the Conference. The organizers did a remarkable work, and the presence of COP25 was felt all over Madrid.
The conference as such, was in general a disappointment, with very little progress as far as advancing the negotiations of the Paris and Kyoto Agreements, and this at a time when we are in a climate emergency and need urgent action.
The newspaper Business Insider bluntly put the conference in the numbers:
$100 million, 27,000 attendees, 1 prominent Swedish teenager, and 0 tangible outcomes.
The aspirations for the conference was to stimulate countries to show increased ambitions in achieving the Paris agreement to stay below 2-1.50 global temperature increase and to agree on basic issues of how to monitor progress of achieving this target including how to measure the carbon market, Article 6 (to sell and buy carbon emissions).
United States, Russia, India, China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia were seen as main blockers. As a response to the request to show higher ambitions, the European Union presented “The European Green New Deal” that the region should lower its emissions to net zero by 2050, which is great but it is not more than the Paris Agreement. The European countries have more capacities and should be leading.
In the Conference there was no agreement on Article, 6 so this was postponed till next COP in Glasgow, 2021.
The Conference was divided into two zones, one blue zone for negotiations between the parties of the COP and one green zone dedicated to civil society initiatives aiming to promote social participation. This area was divided into events dedicated to youth, to indigenous peoples, and to science and innovation. The green zone was intended to be an open-dialogue pavilion for all types of civil actors, ranging from NGOs to businesses, academia and sponsors. Even the green zone required accreditation so it was not open for anybody interested.
In addition to the formal negotiations and the closed COP activities there were numerous other successful events, involving business, cultural figures, celebrities, institutions, academia and civil society.
There were numerous opportunities to meet, network and exchange experience, not least thos organized by civil society. Greta Thunberg and her messages were quoted in all meetings.
See other News below.
Some further statistics: COP 25 Formal. This breaks down into: 13,643 people representing specific parties, 9,987 from observer organisations – such as scientists, business groups and various non-governmental organisations – and 3,076 journalists.
! (the Climate Ambitious Coalition)
Number of participating nations in the COP conference: 190
Number of delegates who went to Madrid for the two-week proceedings: 27,000 (13,643 people representing specific parties, 9,987 from observer organisations – such as scientists, business groups and various non-governmental organisations – and 3,076 journalists.)
Cost of putting on the event: an estimated $100 million dollars
Number of protestors kicked out of the conference venue: about 200
Truckloads full of horse manure dumped outside COP25 by protesters with the Extinction Rebellion group: 1 (It was accompanied by the message: “The horseshit stops here.”)
Amount greenhouse-gas emissions have increased by since the Paris accord was signed in 2015: 4%
Degrees Celsius Earth is on track to warm by 2100: 3
Major emitters (countries) who agreed to make their emissions-reduction pledges more ambitious: 0
Regions, cities, businesses, investors, who have committed to net zero emissions by 2050: 73 countries, 1214 actors.
See programme and webcast of COP 25 meetings:
https://unfccc.int/cop25
https://unfccc.int/climate-action/events/action-hub-events-at-cop-25
https://www.youtube.com/user/climateconference
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSbUPgmmKUTzRmspKM9DpuQ
Reflections in media:
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/12/16/cop25-achieved-next/
See also: Dr Peter Carter: summarizing the outcome; “the lack of climate emergency”
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