COP 25: Neither the best year nor the worst year
By Fang Zhang
2019 was definitely not the best year for the COP. But it is also not the worst year for COP either. The venue of COP25 was determined in twists and turns. After Brazil announced the cancellation of its application for COP25, Chile announced that it would take over from Brazil to host the meeting. One month before the opening of the conference, the Chilean government, however, had to give up hosting the conference. Fortunately, the Spanish government immediately decided to host this COP. Though the decision was made abruptly, the conference site was organized in an orderly fashion by the Spanish government and attracted more than 30,000 attendants.
“Tackling Barriers to Scale Up Renewables” side event at COP25.
My two days at COP25 were quick but fruitful. I organized a side event named “Tackling Barriers to Scale Up Renewables” and served as a speaker on another side event at the SDG pavilion on the role of national climate funds to deal with climate change. Meanwhile, I attended multiple side events on renewable energy, green finance, and institutional reforms for climate change action, where I had many constructive conversations with other delegates. All of these discussions were about where we are and how we can do better. Some great ideas come out of the discussion. For instance, Laboratory on International Law & Regulation at UC San Diego proposed that more international institutions should be set up to focus on the sector-level given the heterogeneity among different sectors, whereas national governments can take more systematic regulations.
The "Time for Action" sign could be seen everywhere in the venue, reminding the world that there is not much time left for us. This message, however, seemed to be hopeless too as political momentum was definitely not there, partially due to the official withdrawal of the United States from Paris Agreement. As a result, ambitious national actions and negotiations were absent on the site, resulting in few concrete achievements.
No countries proposed any new ambitious targets. Many countries were pushing this year for a clear call for all countries to submit more ambitious climate pledges next year.
Expected progress on the global carbon market did not happen either. According to a planned timetable, countries should have agreed on some rules last year, but the issue was pushed to this year’s talks instead. However, there was no outcome agreed upon at COP25, for a second year.
Fang Zhang at the Tufts University booth at COP25.
There is no substantial progess in terms of financial commitment this year. The conference only reaffirmed the commitment of developed countries to mobilize 100 billion US dollars of climate funds for developing countries each year by 2020. No new collective quantitative funding targets are set.
The forces of the younger generation in climate change, however, became very active at COP25, sending a promising message of future actions to the world. There were many young faces at the events, from both developed and developing countries. Though most of the spotlights were on the speech delivered by Greta Thunberg, there were also many other activities from young groups, such as fashion shows based on recycled clothes and music, which sent out calls on the emergency of climate change in their own innovative ways. The increasing voices are pretty inspiring. But on the other hand, the ignorance of politicians on young voices are worrisome given the emergence of climate change.
Fang Zhang was a Tufts delegate to COP25 made possible by the Tufts Institute of the Environment (TIE) and financially supported by the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP). Should you be affiliated with Tufts University and interested in being a Tufts delegate to COP in future years, please visit: https://environment.tufts.edu/initiatives/events/unfccc-cop/. For more information on CIERP, please visit https://sites.tufts.edu/cierp/.