United Nations Climate Summit Madrid
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The appearance of the United States at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid is not quite the status of a superpower. An unadorned room behind high blue partitions, the delegation from Washington has moved. Two doors lead into the room, on which are attached two pieces of paper: "Work Room", it says there, a small coat of arms over it, and an e-mail address that curious journalists can turn to. Not more.
The official delegation of the United States of America makes close at the climate summit in Madrid. She obviously wants to work under the greatest possible exclusion of the public: in a container, Hall 6, between Guinea and Poland. The big show takes place a few steps further in a partly glass pavilion: the "US Climate Action Center". Here, "We are still in" has its quarters: the alliance of US states and cities, universities and companies that carry on with climate protection. And want to go back to the Paris Agreement as soon as possible. Here Harrison Ford, Michael Bloomberg and Al Gore appear in front of the microphones, they talk, drink and celebrate.
The US has declared its withdrawal from the UN climate change process. On 4 November next year, their membership officially ends. But that does not mean that the government has stopped negotiating at the two-week meeting in Madrid. On the contrary. The ambassadors of President Donald Trump, who does not believe in man-made climate change, are working hard behind the scenes.
This is also the Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze noticed. "It may be that one day they will come back, so they try to influence the negotiations so that their interests are taken into account," says the top German delegate in Madrid.
The 25th edition of the World Climate Change Conference is a strange event. Not only because it had to be relocated from Chile to the Spanish capital at short notice. In the exhibition halls rages also a struggle of those who believe in international treaties and institutions, against those who want to assert the interests of their country without regard to the world community. The latter category includes the USA.
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On the other side are the European Union and member countries such as Germany, the Netherlands or France, whose representatives are trying to defend the multilateral climate protection process. They are intoxicated by the initiative of the new Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who presented a "European Green Deal" in time for the Madrid Conference.
The EU representatives are well aware of the support of small, mostly underdeveloped countries that are hoping for major financial aid from the Paris Climate Agreement, be it for building a sustainable economy or protecting against the effects of global warming. They receive help from the thousands of young people led by climate activist Greta Thunberg from Sweden. They demonstrate for uncompromising, immediate climate protection. In Madrid sometimes in front of the courtroom.
They loudly criticize that the 2015 Paris Agreement is a largely ineffective treaty based on pure declarations of intent. And they are right: every state makes savings cuts as much as it likes. And a lot of them hope to be able to save themselves really effective CO2-saving. This could be done using spongy control mechanisms or a largely unregulated trading in emission rights. To block these backdoors, this year's World Climate Conference essentially revolves around (read more about the risk of fraud in climate protection projects abroad).
A solution for this is not found until the last day of the trial. This is not only because some countries are not interested in an internationally binding agreement. The interests of the central participants are also different. The starting position before the final negotiation marathon is therefore extremely complicated. So complicated that a successful conclusion of the UN climate conference until the early Saturday morning is by no means considered safe.
These are the most important players:
Saudi Arabia's emissaries are traditionally the bad boys of the climate summit. The Saudis delay, abduct, rinse softly wherever they can. And sometimes they block on principle. A glorious exception was Paris 2015; At that time, US President Barack Obama had a moderating influence on the Saudis. But Obama is gone. And the Saudis are playing the old game again: being against it is everything. Above all, in Madrid they are fighting to erase the words "climate emergency" and "human rights" from the joint declarations.
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Often they have a new ally: Brazil . Actually, the Brazilians should organize this climate conference. But after the electoral victory of the right-wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro, they withdrew their candidacy. No country has been so radically changed in climate policy as this one. At previous summits, the Brazilian delegation was one of the states that wanted to promote global climate protection. This time in Madrid she is the biggest brakeman so far.
The Brazilians under Bolsonaro want one thing above all: make money, a lot of money. Happy with creative accounting. For example, they want to sell carbon credits to industrialized countries so that buyers can offset their carbon footprints. And the South Americans want to record these greenhouse gas savings once again in order to improve their own carbon footprint. For the double count, the Brazilians but have so far found hardly allies. Nevertheless, they insist on their position and block an agreement. In addition, they are arguing with India that billions of old unused certificates from past years will be transferred to the new trading system (read more about the climate change behind this mechanism here).
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Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles, who claims despite the heavy fires in the Amazon region that his country is doing "excellent work" in protecting the rainforest, has already left Madrid. What instructions did he leave to his subordinates? Not clear.
The People's Republic of China is the big unknown at this climate summit - not just because of its new chief negotiator. Praiseworthy, the emissaries of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter are reiterating that their country is over-fulfilling its national emissions plans and that Western industrialized nations need to do more. They are less likely to talk about China's own coal-fired electricity and CO2 emissions likely to rise again this year.
Even after almost two weeks of negotiations, the delegates are still unclear as to whether they are slowing an agreement (as in the failed Copenhagen summit in 2009) or driving it forward (as in the successful Paris 2015 summit). The Chinese will probably reveal this only in the last hours of this conference. It could decide the summit.
European Union: Environment Minister Svenja Schulze is full of the tailwind that she received with the announcement of the European Green Deal on Wednesday from Brussels (read more about the European Green Deal here) "We are perceived as active," she says their talks with other country representatives. The collective lethargy that has prevailed among Europeans at the climate conferences of recent years - Schulze thinks she has suddenly disappeared. Since the Paris meeting, the climate conferences have been similar to the Mikado: whoever moves first has lost.
"Now someone has moved," says Schulze - and hopes that other countries with higher ambitions will also be around the corner at the next World Climate Change Conference in 2020 in Glasgow, Scotland. The Germans are bravely fighting for their negotiator Nicole Wilke against those tricks that other countries on climate protection up foreshadow. "We will not sign a bad deal just so we can leave Madrid with something in our hands," says Schulze.
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But what are the US doing, the deserters of the World Climate Agreement? "The negotiators have clear directives, what they are allowed to do and what not," said Environment Minister Schulze. Despite their president's anti-climate rhetoric, the US wants to retain its influence and power over the United Nations climate change process. It's not that easy to say goodbye to the state as a state. Too tight are the relationships in a globalized world, whether you like them or not. Airlines from the USA also have to participate in a trade in pollution certificates.
Accordingly, the US negotiators are active on the subject. The same applies to the Global Climate Fund, one of the most important funds for developing countries for aid to climate change. The US negotiators want to prevent in Madrid that the fund comes under the responsibility of the United Nations. The United States also discreetly lobbies for strict rules for the future trade of the countries with emission rights, such as the ban on double counting of allowances for climate protection projects. After all, they want to prevent political competitors like China from gaining economic advantage with climate policy tricks.
There is still no result from Madrid, but a first realization: Even the fighters against multilateralism continue to use the international institutions for their interests. Not on the open stage, but in secret. The main thing, the own voters at home get nothing of it.