CB BureauOn December 15, as part of COP24 at Katowice, Poland, representatives of nearly 200 countries agreed on a deal to adopt a detailed set of rules to implement the Paris climate agreement. After an all-night bargaining session, it was decided that every country would need to follow a uniform set of standards for measuring their carbon emissions and tracking the progress of their climate policies. The complex rulebook spelled out how to account for and record emissions.
The deal also called on countries to step up their plans to cut emissions before the next UN climate conference takes place in 2020, and for richer countries to provide more clarity on the aid they intend to provide to poorer nations. It has a built-in process whereby countries struggling to meet emissions goals can get help to meet their targets.
However, critical questions on scaling up existing targets on emissions reduction, whether countries are doing the required work to ensure global temperature does not rise more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, regulating the market for international carbon-emissions trading, and robust commitments on financial and technological aid for poor and developing countries to help achieve their climate goals were left unaddressed and postponed to future discussions. The final text omits a previous reference to specific reductions in GHG emissions by 2030. Critics have called the deal a ‘half-measure’ that lacks a clear promise of enhanced climate-change action and doesn’t go far enough to mitigate the impending crisis.
In light of the latest IPCC report which found that without drastic measures in the next decade the worst effects of climate change, such as droughts, floods and a decline in agricultural productivity, will come to pass much sooner than expected, concrete and measurable actions were expected at the COP24. Unfortunately, the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait blocked an endorsement of this IPCC report against the wishes of a majority of countries including small island nations (that are particularly vulnerable to global warming). The watered-down resolution welcomes the ‘timely completion’ of the IPCC report but not its conclusions.
António Guterres, UN secretary-general, said, ‘The approval of the Paris agreement work programme is the basis for a transformative process which will require strengthened ambition from the international community. Science has clearly shown that we need enhanced ambition to defeat climate change. From now on, my five priorities will be: ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition and ambition.’