COP25 Concludes, Calling for “More Ambitious” Commitments to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
27 diciembre 2019

SUSTAINABILITY

Environment. On December 15, the 25th UN Climate Change Conference concluded in Madrid, Spain with a preliminary agreement submitted by participating countries calling for “increasing climate ambition from 2020 to comply with the Paris Agreement.” The summit originally aimed to secure an agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, but failed due to resistance from Brazil, the United States, China and India, which refused to sign the agreement. Member countries agreed to meet again in six months in Bonn, Germany, to agree on the next steps and prepare for COP26 to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2020. 

The text entitled “Chile-Madrid, time to act”, agreed during the climate summit and endorsed by the president of the COP25, Carolina Schmidt, establishes that countries will have to present “more ambitious” commitments in 2020 to reduce emissions and tackle the “climate emergency”. The report stresses the urgent need to address and narrow the significant gaps between the efforts being made by different countries to mitigate, in global terms, the emission of greenhouse gases by 2020.

The experts drawing up the agreement agreed that scientific knowledge will be “the main axis” to guide countries’ climate decisions in order to “increase their ambition”, which must be continuously updated in line with scientific advances in climate matters. In addition, the document calls for the transition to a world without emissions to be a “fair” process, also able to boost the creation of decent jobs.

Next steps

Following the COP25 held in Madrid between December 9 and 15, which aimed to reach an agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, the countries issued an agreement without total consensus, in which they committed to “increase climate ambition” in 2020 to comply with the Paris Agreement. To this end, the parties agreed to meet again in six months in Bonn, Germany, to discuss guidelines for advancing these climate goals. They also agreed that COP26 will be held in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2020.

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