Madrid hosts crucial world climate summit

Two-week summit is being held at IFEMA exhibition centre

MADRID is hosting a what experts consider will be a turnpoint climate summit with nearly 200 countries attending.

The summit, which moved to the Spanish capital after Chile had to pull out amid anti-government protests, aims to put the finishing touches to the rules governing the 2015 Paris accord and is being held at IFEMA exhibition centre.

In his opening speech, caretaker PM Pedro Sánchez said, "Only a handful of fanatics deny the evidence" of man-made global warming."

The chairwoman of the twoweek summit warned that those refusing to adjust to the planet's rising temperatures 'will be on the wrong side of history'.

Chile's environment minister, Carolina Schmidt, opened the summit by saying the meeting needs to lay the groundwork for moving towards carbon neutral economies while being sensitive to the poorest and those most vulnerable to rising temperatures - something that policymakers have termed 'just transition'.

"Those who don't want to see it will be on the wrong side of history," said Ms Schmidt as she called on governments to make more ambitious pledges to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases ahead of a deadline to do so next year.

The summit involves creating a functioning international emissions-trading system and compensating poor countries for losses they suffer from rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change.

"We have a common challenge but with differentiated needs and urgencies, which we can only overcome if we work together," said Ms Schmidt as her country took over the chairing of the meeting from Poland.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that pledges to reduce emissions of gases responsible for rising temperatures so far are insufficient to overcome the 'point of no return' in climate change.

"What is lacking is political will," Mr Guterres told reporters on the eve of the meeting.

Organisers expect around 29,000 visitors to attend, including around 50 heads of state and government. Except for the EU's newly sworn-in leadership, which was due to begin a fiveyear term by paying a visit to the summit, the rest of the world's largest carbon emitters the US, China and India - are sending ministerial or lowerlevel officials to the meeting.

"We are here to find answers not to find excuses," Mr Guterres said.

Mr Guterres also announced outgoing Bank of England governor Mark Carney would become his new special envoy on 'climate action and climate finance' from next year.

Mr Guterres cited recent scientific data showing that levels of heat-trapping gases have hit a record high, reaching levels not seen for at least three million years when sea levels were 10-20 metres higher than today.

Unless emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are sharply cut, temperatures could rise to twice the threshold set in the 2015 Paris accord by the end of the century, he warned.

"Do we really want to be remembered as the generation that buried its head in the sand, that fiddled while the planet burned?" Mr Guterres asked.

Countries agreed in Paris four years ago to limit global warming to well below 2C (3.6 Fahrenheit), ideally 1.5C (2.7F) by the end of the century compared with pre-industrial times.

Already, average temperatures have increased by about 1C, leaving little room for the more ambitious target to be met.