From December 2-13, 2019, world leaders met at Feria de Madrid in Madrid, Spain for the UN Climate Change Conference COP25. The conference is designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. Following agreement on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement at COP 24 in Poland last year, a key objective is to complete several matters with respect to the full operationalization of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The COP (Conference of Parties) is the supreme decision-making body of the convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP. A key task for the COP is to review the national communications and emission inventories submitted by Parties. Based on this information, the COP assesses the effects of the measures taken by Parties and the progress made in achieving the ultimate objective of the Convention.
The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise.
The conference kicked off on Monday December 2, 2019 with urgent calls to make serious progress on climate action over the next two weeks. Speaking at the opening ceremony, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that with climate change impacts becoming ever more dangerous and apparent, COP25 must convey to the world a firm determination to change course.
It was on Friday evening that Greta Thunberg arrived to join a 500,000-person march through the center of Madrid. Her message was strong disappointment with world leaders who have allowed greenhouse gas emissions to rise, rather than take action to abate them. “Her stark message summed up the disjunction that scientists, campaigners and some politicians have despaired of at these talks: that the sense of urgency scientists have warned is needed, and that is felt in the outside world among those worst affected by climate breakdown, is still missing from these negotiating rooms.”
Source: “COPO25 climate summit: what happened during the first week?” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/09/cop25-climate-summit-what-happened-during-first-week
For complete information about the UN Climate Conference, visit: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/ and https://unfccc.int/cop25
Time’s Person Of The Year 2019
Greta Thunberg, the activist who has quickly become a leading voice on climate change, is Time's Person of the Year for 2019. At 16, she is the youngest person to earn the title in the magazine's 92-year history.
Thunberg burst onto the world stage in the past year, organizing school strikes and protest marches to call attention to a climate crisis that she says older generations are not taking seriously enough.
She has famously called out world leaders for debating scientific facts and failing to stop a global warming trend that will affect the world's children more than it affects anyone who's currently in power.
Thunberg is currently in Madrid, where she delivered a speech at a U.N. climate conference Wednesday morning.
"Well, I am telling you there is hope. I have seen it," she told the audience. "But it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people."
[Source: Bill Chappell, “Greta Thunberg Is the Time Person Of The Year For 2019,” www.npr.org]
Photo credit: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
The COP (Conference of Parties) is the supreme decision-making body of the convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP. A key task for the COP is to review the national communications and emission inventories submitted by Parties. Based on this information, the COP assesses the effects of the measures taken by Parties and the progress made in achieving the ultimate objective of the Convention.
The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise.
The conference kicked off on Monday December 2, 2019 with urgent calls to make serious progress on climate action over the next two weeks. Speaking at the opening ceremony, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that with climate change impacts becoming ever more dangerous and apparent, COP25 must convey to the world a firm determination to change course.
It was on Friday evening that Greta Thunberg arrived to join a 500,000-person march through the center of Madrid. Her message was strong disappointment with world leaders who have allowed greenhouse gas emissions to rise, rather than take action to abate them. “Her stark message summed up the disjunction that scientists, campaigners and some politicians have despaired of at these talks: that the sense of urgency scientists have warned is needed, and that is felt in the outside world among those worst affected by climate breakdown, is still missing from these negotiating rooms.”
Source: “COPO25 climate summit: what happened during the first week?” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/09/cop25-climate-summit-what-happened-during-first-week
For complete information about the UN Climate Conference, visit: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/ and https://unfccc.int/cop25
Time’s Person Of The Year 2019
Greta Thunberg, the activist who has quickly become a leading voice on climate change, is Time's Person of the Year for 2019. At 16, she is the youngest person to earn the title in the magazine's 92-year history.
Thunberg burst onto the world stage in the past year, organizing school strikes and protest marches to call attention to a climate crisis that she says older generations are not taking seriously enough.
She has famously called out world leaders for debating scientific facts and failing to stop a global warming trend that will affect the world's children more than it affects anyone who's currently in power.
Thunberg is currently in Madrid, where she delivered a speech at a U.N. climate conference Wednesday morning.
"Well, I am telling you there is hope. I have seen it," she told the audience. "But it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people."
[Source: Bill Chappell, “Greta Thunberg Is the Time Person Of The Year For 2019,” www.npr.org]
Photo credit: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
