Katowice, Poland \u2013 After two weeks of bruising negotiations, officials from almost 200 countries agreed Saturday on universal, transparent rules that will govern efforts to\u2026<\/b>
\nKatowice, Poland \u2013 After two weeks of bruising negotiations, officials from almost 200 countries agreed Saturday on universal, transparent rules that will govern efforts to cut emissions and curb global warming.
The deal agreed upon at U. N. climate talks in Poland enables countries to put into action the principles in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
But to the frustration of environmental activists and some countries who were urging more ambitious climate goals, negotiators delayed decisions on two key issues until next year in an effort to get a deal on them.
\u201cThrough this package, you have made a thousand little steps forward together,\u201d said Michal Kurtyka, a senior Polish official chairing the talks.
He said while each individual country would likely find some parts of the agreement it didn\u2019t like, efforts had been made to balance the interests of all parties.
\u201cWe will all have to give in order to gain,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will all have to be courageous to look into the future and make yet another step for the sake of humanity.\u201d
The talks in Poland took place against a backdrop of growing concern among scientists that global warming on Earth is proceeding faster than governments are responding to it. Last month, a study found that global warming will worsen disasters such as the deadly California wildfires and the powerful hurricanes that have hit the United States this year.
And a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, concluded that while it\u2019s possible to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial times, this would require a dramatic overhaul of the global economy, including a shift away from fossil fuels.
Alarmed by efforts to include this in the final text of the meeting, the oil-exporting nations of the U. S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait blocked an endorsement of the IPCC report mid-way through this month\u2019s talks in the Polish city of Katowice. That prompted uproar from vulnerable countries like small island nations and environmental groups.
The final text at the U. N. talks omits a previous reference to specific reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and merely welcomes the \u201ctimely completion\u201d of the IPCC report, not its conclusions.
Last-minute snags forced negotiators in Katowice to go into extra time, after Friday\u2019s scheduled end of the conference had passed without a deal.
One major sticking point was how to create a functioning market in carbon credits. Economists believe that an international trading system could be an effective way to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and raise large amounts of money for measures to curb global warming.
But Brazil wanted to keep the piles of carbon credits it had amassed under an old system that developed countries say wasn\u2019t credible or transparent.
Among those that pushed back hardest was the United States, despite President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord and his promotion of coal as a source of energy.
\u201cOverall, the U. S. role here has been somewhat schizophrenic \u2013 pushing coal and dissing science on the one hand, but also working hard in the room for strong transparency rules,\u201d said Elliot Diringer of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a Washington think tank.
When it came to closing potential loopholes that could allow countries to dodge their commitments to cut emissions, \u201cthe U. S. pushed harder than nearly anyone else for transparency rules that put all countries under the same system, and it\u2019s largely succeeded.\u201d
\u201cTransparency is vital to U. S. interests,\u201d added Nathaniel Keohane, a climate policy expert at the Environmental Defense Fund. He noted that breakthrough in the 2015 Paris talks happened only after the U. S. and China agreed on a common framework for transparency.
\u201cIn Katowice, the U. S. negotiators have played a central role in the talks, helping to broker an outcome that is true to the Paris vision of a common transparency framework for all countries that also provides flexibility for those that need it,\u201d said Keohane, calling the agreement \u201ca vital step forward in realizing the promise of the Paris accord.\u201d
Among the key achievements in Katowice was an agreement on how countries should report their greenhouses gas emissions and the efforts they\u2019re taking to reduce them. Poor countries also secured assurances on getting greater predictability about financial support to help them cut emissions, adapt to inevitable changes such as sea level rises and pay for damages that have already happened.
\u201cThe majority of the rulebook for the Paris Agreement has been created, which is something to be thankful for,\u201d said Mohamed Adow, a climate policy expert at Christian Aid. \u201cBut the fact countries had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line shows that some nations have not woken up to the urgent call of the IPCC report\u201d on the dire consequences of global warming.
A central feature of the Paris Agreement \u2013 the idea that countries will ratchet up their efforts to fight global warming over time \u2013 still needs to be proved effective, he said.
\u201cTo bend the emissions curve, we now need all countries to deliver these revised plans at the special U. N. Secretary General summit in 2019. It\u2019s vital that they do so,\u201d Adow said.
In the end, a decision on the mechanics of an emissions trading system was postponed to next year\u2019s meeting. Countries also agreed to consider the issue of raising ambitions at a U. N. summit in New York next September.
Speaking hours before the final gavel, Canada\u2019s Environment Minister Catherine McKenna suggested there was no alternative to such meetings if countries want to tackle global problems, especially at a time when multilateral diplomacy is under pressure from nationalism.
\u201cThe world has changed, the political landscape has changed,\u201d she told The Associated Press. \u201cStill you\u2019re seeing here that we\u2019re able to make progress, we\u2019re able to discuss the issues, we\u2019re able to come to solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n