COP25: What the heck happened?

The expectations, the failures, the small wins and next steps.

Before 2015, most people hadn’t ever heard of, let alone followed, the outcomes from the UN climate “COP” talks. It was during this year at COP21 that the historic Paris Agreement was adopted in France. This was the first ‘legally’ binding universal climate agreement to be enacted, which 125 countries have since signed. It ensures that countries (or “Parties”) are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and keeping the increase in global temperature below 2C pre-industrial levels. The pressure from the global community has only increased since the release of the bombshell report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in September 2018, that gave the world an 11 year timeline to act before we experience the irreversible and catastrophic effects of climate change. COP25 was recently held in Madrid, Spain during the first two weeks of December and the results were nowhere near the level of ambition or commitment needed to meet the Paris target.

You’re probably familiar with the general idea of COP - but what is it exactly and why does it matter?

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is an annual meeting to assess both the global and national progress made on climate change. It is responsible for implementing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), bringing together the 197 countries that have signed the Convention. It is hosted by a different country each year, and there are different focuses that have been prioritized based on the outcomes of the previous year’s COP.

What was on the COP25 agenda?

Heading into COP25, some of the priority items on the agenda included: climate finance, transparency of climate action, loss and damage, consideration of Indigenous People’s rights, oceans and gender. Based on the Paris Agreement, countries are required to review their climate pledges (called Nationally Determined Contributions) by 2020.

In the final document created at the end of COP25, there was no concrete language requiring countries to increase ambition. One of the ongoing disagreements is the issue of who should pay for the required actions to reduce emissions. Another point of contention was “Article 6” of the Paris Agreement, discussion on carbon markets and an international carbon trading regime.

In the Agreement, carbon markets are a crucial component, however, there is no guidance on their regulation. In the end, there was no deal and the issues have been pushed to the COP26 agenda. It was concerning to many attendees that the Parties are acting at such glacial speed, when the science is clear that we’re in the midst of a climate emergency and we need huge system change - and we need it quickly. Youth, in particular Indigenous youth on the frontlines, alongside civil society around the globe have been at the forefront of demanding greater climate action. 2019 was the year where the world woke up to the urgency of climate change, and the power of youth - thanks in great part to the Fridays for Future movement. We left COP25 feeling frustrated to repeatedly see these voices sidelined at the negotiation level.

Despite the obvious failures - there were some important highlights worth mentioning.

• 36 young environmentalists sailed from Amsterdam to South America to attend the COP in order to avoid flying, which has the highest rate of greenhouse gas emissions of all transportation methods. Unfortunately because of the last minute change in location, they weren’t able to physically attend, but they spent these weeks at a think tank for sustainable air travel and were still able to call in to the COP remotely.

• 79 countries have indicated they will increase climate pledges for 2020 - that’s not yet concrete action, but it’s an excellent starting point.

• The Gender Action Plan was created to be a 5-year work plan.

• European Green Deal was announced by the European Union to be climate neutral by 2050.

• Increase of youth-led and youth-inclusive action in the conference’s side events! YCL ran a few, including our guest session on impact investing, our firechat chats on sustainable investments and our resilience lab on reimagining adaptation and climate finance. Check out what we did at COP25 here.

  So, where do we go from here?

  It’s important to remember just how challenging it is to bring 197 countries into a room and leave with an agreement. But the “no deal” outcome of COP25 means that we’re going another year without substantive international climate agreement. Are we disappointed by the overall COP outcomes? Incredibly - but we’re not giving up. We’ve returned to our communities this week determined to keep empowering youth-led climate action and gearing up for COP26 in the UK.

The YCL team spent the first two weeks of December 2019 attending and participating at COP25 in Madrid, Spain.