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Writer's pictureNuno Moreira da Cruz

UN Climate Change Conference (Katowice, Poland)



COP24 KATOWICE 2018

The objective of the Conference was to agree a “road map” on how to put the 2015 Paris agreement into action, with three key issues to be addressed:

- How to further cut carbon emissions targets

- Provide finance to poorer countries

- Control that everyone is doing what they say they are doing

Were objectives met?

I would answer yes to the third one, and “work in progress” for the first two. Indeed, there seems to be a clear way forward on how to account for and record country’s emissions, but on how to scale up existing commitments on emissions, and on how to provide finance for poor countries to do the same, there was a sort of “for further discussions” outcome.

In the light of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that predicted catastrophic consequences if temperatures were allowed to rise more than 1.5C, it seems that there is no time for “further discussions”. It took us three years from Paris to Katowice to agree on one of the objectives (and I would say the easiest one).

What is really upsetting (but I would not say a surprise) is the fact that US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to this meeting "welcoming" this report. Instead, they were only able to support a “softer” phrase, the conference would "take note" of the report. Disturbing.

In the link below there is a great summary on “where we are”:

We all know how tough it is to try and find a global agreement with so many conflicting interests in the Agenda, but this is THE key issue Humanity is facing. I suggest, while politicians seem to be unable to find a way out of those “conflicting agendas”, we, citizens and consumers, can do a lot. Link below help on the “how to do it”


COP24 KATOWICE 2018

https://unfccc.int/katowice


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