Hola!
And welcome to COP25 day 9, live from Madrid.
Here an update from the negotiations.
THE NEGOTIATIONS
Credits: Cordon Press.
China, India, Brazil and South Africa released a breaking statement yesterday in the midday of the negotiations. They argue that they are “already offering the highest possible ambition”, and break down some of their main demands, including related to Article 6. Simon Evans from Carbon Brief explains it very well:
Strong stuff in BASIC (BR SA IN CN) statement at #COP25
— Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) December 11, 2019
➡️ Flags "pre2020" as key priority
➡️ "Grave concern" over imbalance at talks
➡️ Says "share of proceeds" shd apply to 6.2 as well as 6.4
➡️ Backs KP transition
➡️ Says they're already offering "highest possible ambition" pic.twitter.com/lOMhKBVYUA
Aside from this, bilaterals, informal and consultations continued throughout the day, with no major breakthroughs happening. Facilitators are trying to understand the different demands of the countries and their red lines, to find some common ground.
Seems like big trade-offs will have to be made across the board if we want to close the negotiations any time soon. Chris analyses how Australia could get some compromise to carry over the Kyoto Protocol market credits into the new regime: http://climatetracker.org/how-the-australia-deal-gets-done/
Also at COP, 73 countries said they will submit new enhanced climate plans (known as NDCs) by 2020, and 11 of them (all European) are already in the preparation. The list is lacking some of the major players, such as China or the US.
Massive Action for Climate Justice
Credits: Allan Jay Quesada.
Hundreds of protesters on Wednesday evening staged a surprise protest at the COP25 conference hall demanding rich countries to step up action towards tackling the climate crisis.
Taking inspiration from a popular South American form of protest known as Cacerolazo, which originated in Chile, the demonstrations took place as ministers headed into the late stages of talks at the United Nations climate conference in Madrid (COP 25).
The demonstrators, collectively representing hundreds of millions of members, expressed outrage that while big polluters and their lobbyists have been given free rein to influence negotiators, civil society’s response is being repressed.
While at first activists were threatened with being de-badged and some suffered violent repression by security forces, at the moment seems that no penalty will fall over the action organisers and rather the UNFCCC has promised to open more spaces for NGOs to express themselves.
MEDIA WRAP-UP
Credits: UNFCCC.
The European Union presented their European Green Deal: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/11/european-green-deal-will-change-economy-to-solve-climate-crisis-says-eu
Greta Thunberg, person of the year by TIME Magazine: https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2019-greta-thunberg/
Chile does not protect human rights in the carbon market negotiations http://climatetracker.org/chilehhrrmarketsco2/
CLIMATE TRACKER
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Cover photo credits: Simon Chambers – ACT Now for Climate Justice.