The United Nations opens the climate summit this Monday (12/02) – COP 25. The event takes place from December 2nd to 13th, with world leaders from almost 200 countries, totaling around 29 thousand people. More than 50 heads of state are expected to attend COP 25, whose slogan is “Time for Action” (Time for Action).
Polish climate minister Michał Kurtyka, who led the round of UN climate talks in the city of Katowice in December 2018, said a rise in climate activism among young people highlighted the urgency of the issue. moving at the pace we would like, but my hope is still particularly among young people,” Kurtyka said at the official opening ceremony of the talks at a conference center in Madrid.
Brazil at COP
The positions that Brazil will take to the negotiation tables at the Climate Conference are not yet known, but one of the Brazilian government's main demands will be to charge developed countries with an increase in financing that aims to compensate for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. achieved by the country in recent years.
“The Brazilian government made a huge effort to reduce emissions by 2020 and compensation was not made. There was not enough financial support to help and recognize the country's efforts to combat climate change,” said Paulo Cezar Rotella Braga, first secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one of the Brazilian negotiators at COP25, in a Skype talk at the open meeting of the FAPESP Research Program on Global Climate Change (PFPMCG).
O Brazil Climate Action Hub, an open and plural space, in which governments, civil society organizations, the press, parliamentarians and the business sector will promote discussions on the challenges of climate action in the Brazilian and Latin American context. Check it out here the highlight of the program (carried out by ICS) of events held in pavilion 8, located in the Blue Zone.
“War against nature must stop”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the day before the opening of COP 25 that “for many decades, the human species has been at war with the planet” and that now, “the planet is fighting back.”
António Guterres highlighted data from the climate report produced by the World Meteorological Organization, “the last five years have been the hottest on record, sea levels are the highest in the history of humanity.”
According to the UN representative, “biodiversity on land and sea is under severe attack, climate-related natural disasters are becoming more frequent, more deadly, more destructive, with increasing human and financial costs.”
“We see technologies moving in a good direction (…). But there is a lack of political will. And the main emitting countries, although we had 70 countries in New York agree and commit to carbon neutrality by 2050, the main emitting countries have not yet done so. And if they don’t, our goals are not achievable”, points out Guterres.
What is the COP?
COP – Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is an international treaty resulting from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro. January in 1992. Establishes the basic obligations of the 196 Parties (States) and the European Union to combat climate change.
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC. The Parties meet every year to review progress in implementing the Convention, where other instruments that support its establishment are proposed, evaluated and approved.
The first COP was held in Berlin, Germany, in 1995. There have been 24 COPs held, the last in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018. The COP Presidency alternates between UN regions: Africa, Asia, Central Europe and Eastern, Western Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.
