COP25: ‘Fractured world politics’
Lindsey Fielder Cook has written about the climate conference in Madrid
The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) representative who attended the recent Conference of the Parties (COP) 25 climate change conference in Madrid has described the negotiations as being like ‘sharpened knives’ and reflecting ‘fractured world politics’.
Lindsey Fielder Cook, who attended the gathering as an observer, said that many key issues had been rolled forward to the COP26 climate conference, to be hosted by the UK in Glasgow.
Writing in Think Global Green, she said: ‘It is hard to imagine a harsher and weirder COP than the COP25.’ However, ‘while [COP25 was] viewed as a failure in the face of rising global emissions and temperatures, some things happened on process and politics that deserve understanding… In the last hour of negotiations, countries supportive of the San Jose Principles stated their refusal to accept the proposed market guidelines. Once the EU stated its refusal, high ambition after high ambition country called for the floor and outlined their insistence not only for a more robust and transparent market mechanism, but also for language on human rights, Indigenous People’s rights, environmental integrity and adequate safeguards. It was a remarkable multilateral moment in our QUNO experience.’
