JOIN USUN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ warning ahead of the start of the 25th Conference of Parties (CoP) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC), now under way in Madrid, Spain, should not be lost on the 200 countries which are meeting there. Guterres issued a last warning when he said that the ‘’the point of no return is no longer over the horizon. It is in sight and hurtling towards us.” The participants must reaffirm their commitments under the 2015 Paris Accord, find new rules for emissions trading and make arrangements for mitigation and financial assistance for countries which will be affected by climate change. It is going to be a complex and difficult task, and the condition that every decision has to be by consensus will make it more difficult.
It was agreed in Paris to restrict global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Most nations have ratified the deal, but the commitments that they have made to cut their emissions are not legally binding. These Nationally Defined Contributions (NDCs) will now have to be upgraded before the 2020 deadline to meet the aims set in Paris. There will be greater pressure on all countries with large economies and bigger carbon emissions to make more contributions. India and China will be among them. They, in turn, will demand that the developed nations, which have created the present situation with their industrial emissions in the past, should shoulder much of the responsibility for the remedial and preventive action now. Actually, the developing countries’ NDCs are more than proportionate to their historical share in global warming, and they still have development needs to be met.
Though the rich countries had promised to help poor countries with technology and finance to enable reduction in emissions and to cope with climate change, such assistance has actually dwindled. This will have to be addressed at the meeting. The carbon trading system based on credits, which was introduced by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, will be another important subject of discussion. A provision in the Paris agreement called Article 6 which was related to this will draw much attention. There are other important tasks and challenges, too. The rule book for the implementation of the Paris agreement has been framed but the substantive part of implementation remains. After sorting out the contentious issues, the CoP has to pave the way for next year’s all-important summit. The world will have to show much more earnestness and political will than it has in the past to reach a sound and effective agreement and implement it.