Climate Change Summit In Madrid Brings Together 200 Countries

With the objective of scaling up efforts to combat global warming and adapt to its effects, delegates from almost 200 countries have gathered for the two-week United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) in Madrid that opened on Monday, December 2, 2019.

Sitting before the delegates, composed of civil society, governments, international organizations, businesses, bankers and many others, climate change summit chairperson Carolina Schmidt, who is also Chile's environment minister, warned during the opening ceremony those who refuse to act against the planet's rising temperatures "will be on the wrong side of history."

According to Schmidt, the climate change summit needs to map out the plan for "just transition" toward carbon neutral economies while taking into consideration the poorest and those most susceptible to rising temperatures.

"Those who don't want to see it will be on the wrong side of history," she said. She also called on governments to increase their pledges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as early as now, ahead its deadline to do so next year.

Initially planned to be set in Chile, the climate change summit was moved to Madrid amid anti-government protests. Nonetheless, delegates aim to complete the rules governing the 2015 Paris agreement which involves creating an international emissions-monitoring framework and compensating poor countries for the rising sea levels and other losses they suffer as consequences of climate change.

During the ceremony which transfers the climate change summit's hosting from Poland to Chile, Schmidt noted that although countries have different needs and urgencies, they all have a common challenge "which we can only overcome if we work together."

Four years ago, countries agreed during the COP 21 in Paris to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F), ideally 1.5C (2.7F) by the end of the century. However, in the succeeding years the planet's average temperatures have increased by about 1C, which also increased the demand for countries to work harder in order the achieve the target reduction.

Also present in the opening ceremony, United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized that pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming so far are inadequate to mitigate its effects that the planet is facing close to "point of no return" on climate change.

On the eve of the climate change summit which expects around 29,000 visitors to the meeting, including around 50 heads of state and government for Monday's opening session, Guterres told reporters there are the technical and economic means to combat climate change, but the world lacks political will.

"The technologies that are necessary to make this possible are already available. Signals of hope are multiplying. Public opinion is waking up everywhere. Young people are showing remarkable leadership and mobilization. [But we need] political will to put a price on carbon, political will to stop subsidies on fossil fuels [and start] taxing pollution instead of people," said Guterres.

The U.N. Secretary-General also called on rich economies to increase their pledges and support for poor nations to implement the reforms needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of global warming. He added, the climate change's danger signals are clear and must be acted on without further delay.