UN climate summit Madrid
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The UN climate conference in Madrid has still not been concluded. The positions of individual countries are so far apart that it has to be considered a success if there is a joint declaration, however diluted, at all.
Chilean Minister of the Environment and Conference President Carolina Schmidt said on Sunday night during a short appearance in front of the plenary that after the publication of new draft draft texts, she will lead the consultations on the drafting of Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement from 1.30 a.m.
Article 6 also provides for market mechanisms to be used to increase and implement national contributions to climate change, the so-called NDCs. For example, an industrialized country in a developing country could finance a solar power plant to reduce the use of fossil fuels, and this emission saving could be offset against its NDC.
It is particularly controversial whether pollution rights granted under the Kyoto Protocol should continue to apply under the Paris Agreement. Environmental groups warn that this - like loopholes for double counting - could undermine the entire Paris Agreement.
The Minister for the Environment of host country Spain, Teresa Ribera, is to hold consultations on the remaining three controversial issues. Among other things, this involves supporting developing countries in dealing with climate-related damage and losses that are already occurring.
An inventory was planned at 3.30 a.m. The plenary conference to approve the resolutions was scheduled for 5:00 am and continues.
After Schmidt's announcement, criticism of her conduct of negotiations was raised again. In a delegate's only response, the representative from Papua New Guinea said 90 percent of the nearly 200 countries represented in Madrid had not been included in the negotiations in the past six hours. He therefore invited Schmidt to a transparent negotiation process.
Schmidt agreed to this and called on the delegates to make an effort to reach an agreement in Madrid to combat the "climate crisis". "We're almost there. It's hard, it's difficult, but it's worth it," she said. She knew that the negotiators were "very tired". "But we need this final effort."
The UN climate conference should have ended on Friday evening at 6 p.m. Negotiations have been delayed by more than a day.
WWF International climate chief Manuel Pulgar Vidal said the major greenhouse gas emitters should "now no longer hold the climate conference hostage". It was time for the international community to achieve consistent climate protection.
The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg wrote in the short message service Twitter that it seems that the negotiations in Madrid "are falling apart". The scientific findings on climate change are "clear", but are "ignored". "Whatever happens, we will never give up. We have only just started," added the 16-year-old initiator of the global climate protection movement "Fridays for Future".
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