Climate summit closes with timid call to step up ambition - reaction from Bas Eickhout MEP
COP25
After two weeks of negotiations, the 25th UN climate conference (COP25) in Madrid has ended today without an agreement on binding rules for the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement. The next climate summit will take place in Glasgow, in November 2020, where countries are supposed to present their plans for achieving the Paris targets.
Greens/EFA MEP Bas Eickhout, head of the European Parliament delegation to the COP25 comments:
"The big gap between insufficient climate policies around the world and the objectives of the Paris Agreement has not narrowed. This must have consequences for trade talks that the EU is currently having with the biggest obstructors."
"Once again, no progress has been made to bring countries more in line with the 1.5 degrees target of the Paris Agreement. While the world is still heading for more than 3 degrees of warming, the final resolution fails to fully address the climate emergency and only includes a timid call for increasing ambition ahead of next year Glasgow summit. The gap between what science tells us to do and what politicians deliver on climate summits is enormous. Nothing has changed in that regard. "
“Very strict rules are an absolute necessity and old untrustworthy CO2-credits have to be scrapped. That has not happened in Madrid, the summit ended without a deal. It is a good thing that the EU has not agreed to a bad deal. Brazil and Australia are among the major obstructors. This cannot go without consequences for the EU's negotiations with both countries on new trade agreements."
"Negotiators have now been tasked to conclude rules by June 2020. This is paramount to clear the way to the Glasgow summit next year. That summit must be entirely devoted to raising national targets. The Paris agreement states that countries must submit stricter national climate plans every five years, next year is that moment. That climate summit is becoming crucial. All eyes are on China and the EU. They will have to set the tone. A big EU-China summit will take place in September next year, just before the COP26 in Glasgow. That is when the EU will have to be ready in order to hit the nail on the head."
