The UN climate talks in Madrid are at risk of stalling over the question of how to create a global carbon trading market, a highly divisive issue that has splintered the 197 countries that are a party to the Paris climate accord. The COP25 summit taking place in the Spanish capital has been set the task of creating a framework that would allow countries to exchange carbon offsets or pay each other for emission-reducing projects.
The carbon market is the only remaining part of the rule book for the Paris pact – the 2015 deal that aims to limit global warming to well below 2C – that has not yet been finalized after negotiators failed to resolve the issue at last year’s summit in Poland. With two-weeks of talks meant to conclude on Friday, observers say there is a strong risk of no deal being reached – again – on the issue.
“It is concerning,” said Jennifer Morgan, executive director at Greenpeace International who has been attending climate summits for 25 years. “I have never seen the divide [so large] between what is happening inside these walls and what is happening on the outside.” She was referring to growing public anxiety over the devastating impacts of climate change and a youth protest movement that has led millions of people to take to the streets around the world, including 500,000 at a rally in Madrid last Friday. The demonstrations and strikes at schools and workplaces inspired by the teenage activist Greta Thunberg have added pressure to the talks, but so far had little direct impact