COP25 May Be the Most Important Climate Change Meeting Ever

The 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) kicked off today in Madrid, Spain. This two-week meeting of almost all of the world’s countries is intended to help us fight climate change, and in 2015 produced The Paris Agreement—a pledge for all participants to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change. With 2020 set as a crucial deadline in that agreement, COP25 may prove to be the most important Conference of the Parties to date. Although the decisions made at these meetings are not binding under international law, they have a huge impact on how different world powers act, and thus on collective action for the global issue of climate change.
When it was signed in 2015, the Paris Agreement was considered an historic step forward for collective climate action. Under its terms, all parties who signed on—186 countries and the European Union—have until November 4, 2020, to revise their emissions targets and make them more ambitious (which research on climate change has shown is sorely needed). The international community has been working on this since 1992, with minimal results. We’re still barreling toward a climate apocalypse unless something is done, and quickly. When it was signed in 2015, the Paris Agreement was considered an historic step forward for collective climate action. Under its terms, all parties who signed on—186 countries and the European Union—have until November 4, 2020, to revise their emissions targets and make them more ambitious (which research on climate change has shown is sorely needed). The international community has been working on this since 1992, with minimal results. We’re still barreling toward a climate apocalypse unless something is done, and quickly. What happens at this conference will set the stage for those crucial revisions.
At last year’s COP, the first since President Donald Trump took office and promised to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, the country was barely present. The US also joined Russia, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia in downplaying the findings of last year’s IPCC special report on climate change, which made clear that drastic action is necessary if we want to avoid global catastrophe. Now the United States has formally notified the UN of its intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. The government maintains a commitment to going it alone on climate change, citing an “unfair economic bargain on American workers” posed by the terms of the agreement.

By – Abhishek Singh
Content - https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/cop25-climate-united-states/