COP25, Wednesday started of with the delegates at the Chile/Madrid climate change conference looking up from their technical negotiations to take stock of climate action.
Afternoon witnessed the launch of the technical part of the stocktake on the implementation and ambition of climate action before 2020. UNFCCC works related to mitigation efforts, and supporting enhancing implementation and ambition were reviewed by the parties. While a few of the parties noted the needs of developing countries remaining unmet and civil society denouncing a “lost decade” of mitigation and climate financing efforts; many found the event quite sobering.
A virtual meeting of science master (and their equivalents) from around the world, hosted by the Chilean Presidency, was held, on how they could contribute to the development of countries’ climate pledges. An event was also held by The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), to better understand the IPCC’s Special Report on Climate Change and Land. “the facts are telling us that we are impacting the support systems keeping us alive,” underscored the UNFCCC Executive Secretary during the opening of the event.
Climate action was also reviewed by The Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action. in the first of its series of events. State of action taken by non-party stakeholders – businesses, cities and regions, and civil society was reflected in the 2019 Yearbook of Global Climate Action.
Technical negotiations, particularly for finance, loss and damage, and Article 6 (market and non-market mechanisms), continued. Promising new texts were reviewed in the morning, by the Article 6 negotiators. This optimism was also seemingly supported in the afternoon negotiation, as delegates worked constructively to move “forward ever, backward never.”
