MADRID – The rift between a growing climate vanguard and a handful of countries obstructing progress meant countries failed to finalise the rules of the Paris Agreement at talks that finished on Sunday.<\/b><\/p>\n
The UN’s longest-ever climate summit drew to a close after two additional days and nights of difficult negotiations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ministers and diplomats in Madrid were under pressure to agree common rules to set up a global carbon market and signal their readiness to boost climate action ahead of a key summit in Glasgow, UK, next year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But a failure to reach consensus on key issues weakened the final decision on ambition and pushed back a decision on carbon markets into next year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Chilean presidency wanted to use Cop25 (the UN’s 25th conference of the parties) to galvanise political leadership but it failed to leverage the biggest emitters<\/a> into action.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Invigorated by the US withdrawal and rising nationalism at home, Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia, defended loopholes<\/a> and opposed commitments to enhance climate action. Other big emitters such as China and India insisted on the delivery of finance and support promised by rich countries before 2020 as a precondition to any discussion on enhancing their current targets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We need your help\u2026<\/b>\u00a0Climate Home News is an independent news outlet dedicated to the most important global stories. If you can spare even a few dollars each month, it would make a huge difference to us.\u00a0Our Patreon account<\/a>\u00a0is a safe and easy way to support our work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Meanwhile, some European countries, emboldened by the demands of public and youth activists, joined a call<\/a> by vulnerable countries to push for strong rules that would ensure the integrity of the Paris Agreement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Closing the meeting, Cop25 president Carolina Schmidt said the agreements reached were \u201cnot enough to address the urgency of the crisis on climate change\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe world is watching us,\u201d she warned, calling on countries to \u201cstrengthen political will and to accelerate climate action at the pace that the world needs\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201dThe new generations are waiting for more from us, we have the obligation of being up to this task,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I am disappointed with the results of #COP25<\/a>.<\/p>\n The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation & finance to tackle the climate crisis.<\/p>\n But we must not give up, and I will not give up.<\/p>\n \u2014 Ant\u00f3nio Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 15, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n