Climate Experts Condemn Lack Of Urgency As World Leaders Gather At Madrid Talks

Politicians from around the world gathered in Madrid today in an effort to agree some of the most contentious issues in the global fight against climate change, while activists and experts criticized what they see as a sluggish and ineffectual response by the international community.

Now in its second week, today the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 moved into its high-level phase, in which ministers from the participating nations meet to discuss issues such as carbon trading rules.

Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, for one, is not impressed: “If you look at it from a certain point of view, we have achieved nothing,” she told reporters in the Spanish capital.

It is a viewpoint that is finding sympathy among experts at the conference. “We’re going about our daily lives without really acknowledging that we’re very close to a tipping point—both environmentally and politically,” said Cynthia Elliott, climate program associate at the World Resources Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that promotes environmental sustainability and economic opportunity. “Right now there are record floods and fires around the globe, and these things are only going to keep getting worse. So, while rules on Article 6 are crucial to get right, they alone will not deliver the bold action on climate change we need.”

Article 6 refers to the section of the Paris Agreement that details how nations can reduce emissions using international carbon markets. “Article 6 is the most pressing issue because it’s the most contentious,” Elliott told Forbes.com from Madrid. “At the heart of this is the integrity of the Paris agreement: if you get weak rules, you jeopardize the honesty and integrity within the process; you get systems whereby countries are able to meet their commitments without doing anything at all.”

Among the key sticking points dealt with by Article 6 is so-called “double counting,” a situation in which two or more countries end up claiming credit for the same emission reductions, as well as issues surrounding the share of proceeds from carbon trades.

But Elliott also suggested that the requirement to focus on the minutiae of the agreement contributes to something approaching inertia. This lends credence to the complaints of figures like Thunberg, as well as experts such as Johan Rockström, joint director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who over the weekend told media that at COP25, “We are at risk of getting so bogged down in incremental technicalities at these negotiations that we forget to see the forest for the trees.”

“We’re going about our daily lives without really acknowledging that we’re very close to a tipping point—both environmentally and politically,” Elliott said. “Right now there are record floods and fires around the globe, and these things are only going to keep getting worse. Yet people are focused on Article 6 and looking at the least-cost option to address climate change.”

From this point of view the COP was failing to address the urgency of the problem. “There are definitely substantial efforts being made, but it’s not enough and it’s not fast enough,” Elliott said. “The missing piece is how do you get people thinking about climate in every single decision—whether it’s a national government or a corporation?”

More emphasis, she suggested, should be placed on long-term climate strategies, such as those adopted by New Zealand and the U.K., which have passed laws to bring greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Under such legislation, all major projects, both public and private, must explicitly take into account their emissions costs or benefits.

Nevertheless, the assembled governments should not compromise on getting a getting a strong set of rules in favor of rushing through Article 6 wording by the end of the week, when the conference is set to conclude.

“We would prefer the conversation to continue into next year as opposed to settling on political accommodations that are not technically sound,” Elliott said. “They can’t keep pushing this away forever, but there’s not much of a benefit for anyone if they make too many compromises just to get an outcome.”