U.N. Climate Talks End With Few Commitments and a ‘Lost’ Opportunity

Following the Madrid climate talks, Somini Sengupta reports on the incredibly disappointing outcome in The New York Times in an article called “U.N. Talks End With Few Commitments and a ‘Lost’ Opportunity.” Climate talks in Madrid ended on December 14th with the United States and other premium polluting nations blocking any effort to reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, United States’ delegates will not be attending next year’s climate meeting as the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement.

The Trump administration took a very opportunistic approach to the meeting, unfortunately, in the wrong direction. They pushed back on a range of proposals to limit the pollution currently destroying the planet. His administration and their polluting allies blocked “even a nonbinding measure that would have encouraged countries to adopt more ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions next year.” As discussed in an early Climate Coalition News-post, “World’s Emissions Gap is Growing, with No Sign of Peaking Soon, UN Warns,” a frightening gap exists between scientists’ climate prescriptions (just to keep the planet inhabitable) and the amount countries are currently outputting. Even worse, the gap is only growing and it is because of current world leaders who are either too short-minded or ignorant to see the long-term damage of their actions.

Since nothing was accomplished due to blocking from the United States’ delegates, the next meeting Glasgow is the next hope. The annual meeting will be held almost directly preceding the United States presidential elections. Since a new president would not be placed in office until January, the United States will not be at that meeting. Not having an economic powerhouse and polluting powerhouse, such as the United States, at the meeting is disappointing. However, it does give the talks a needed space from the negative bombardment and blocking done by Trump’s administration. Then, depending on who is elected next year, they can quickly rejoin the Paris Agreement and back initiatives brought about in Glasgow.

To read Sengupta’s article in The New York Times, click here: “U.N. Talks End With Few Commitments and a ‘Lost’ Opportunity,” by Somini Sengupta.