COP25 recap: Day 7

Things are starting to heat up at the UN climate talks in Madrid. Yesterday’s plenary, where countries were due to close the technical bits of the negotiations, finished at 2:30 am with many open and postponed questions on the table.

APPROVED

Different issues on the agenda for these negotiations closed yesterday. That includes the work of the Koronivia workshop on Agriculture, the work around the Technology Mechanism or the National Adaptation Plans discussions. Check here for a full picture.

TO COP

But the majority of the difficult issues during the first week are pushing forward to the second week. That means ministers, who are arriving and giving speeches today, will have to crunch these items until finding a solution later this week.

These main issues are:

– Gender: where countries have not been able to agree on the 5-year work plan moving forward.

– Article 6 on Carbon Markets:  which still has all the contentious issues open, such as double counting, corresponding adjustments or overall mitigation. For more details check our article here.

– Loss and Damage: which has been very controversial during the first week since developing countries are trying to include finance for those most vulnerable.

– Response Measures: where the 5-year work plan is still being defined.

– Scope of the next periodic review: the conversation has shifted to discussing pre-2020 action, leading to a lack of consensus in the room.

– CGE: which focuses on capacity building transparency.

PUSHED TO 2020

Countries decided to push some of the difficult issues to be discussed next year. Which are:

– Transparency: the last details of the Transparency Mechanism under the Paris Agreement have not been resolved. Climate Home has a great explanation of why and its consequences.

– Common timeframes: has been postponed for several times already. It will move to 2020 and won’t consider the work undertaken so far .

– Adaptation Committee: because of lacking clear support or means of implementation.

– Bunker Fuels: where the role of aviation and maritime transportation is discussed.

THE WAY FORWARD

The COP25 presidency also announced how negotiations will continue. Carolina Schmidt and the presidency will be taking over the lead on the scope of the next periodic review, CGE, and gender.

Other issues will be led by newly appointed co-facilitators, which will be pairs of ministers. That will be for Article 6, loss and damage, response measures, and the final decision 1/CP.25.