U.N. climate talks end with no deal on carbon markets

Issues pushed to next summit in Scotland

MADRID – Marathon international climate talks ended Sunday as major polluters resisted calls to ramp up efforts to keep global warming at bay and negotiators postponed the regulation of global carbon markets until next year.

Those failures came even after organizers added two days to the 12 days of scheduled talks. Delegates from almost 200 nations endorsed a declaration to help poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change, although they didn’t allocate any new funds to do so.

The final declaration cited the “urgent need” to cut planet-heating greenhouse gases in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris climate change accord. That fell far short of promising to enhance countries’ pledges to cut gases next year, which developing countries and environmentalists lobbied the delegates to achieve.

The Paris accord established the common goal of avoiding a temperature increase of more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. The potential consequences of a temperature rise include rising sea levels and fiercer storms.

Negotiators left some of the thorniest issues for the next climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in a year, including the liability for damages caused by rising temperatures. That demand from developing countries was resisted mainly by the United States.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “disappointed” by the meeting’s outcome.

“The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation and finance to tackle the climate crisis,” he said. “We must not give up, and I will not give up.”

“It’s sad that we couldn’t reach a final agreement” on carbon markets, said the climate summit’s chair, Carolina Schmidt, Chile’s environment minister.

“We were on the verge,” she said, adding that the goal was to establish markets that are “robust and environmentally sustainable.”

Putting a price on emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, would allow countries or companies to trade emissions permits that could be steadily reduced to encourage businesses to transition to low-emission technologies.

Some observers said no deal on how to govern the exchange of carbon credits was better than a weak one that could undermine a dozen or so regional carbon mechanisms.

Helen Mountford from the environmental think-tank World Resources Institute said that “given the high risks of loopholes discussed in Madrid, it was better to delay than accept rules that would have compromised the integrity of the Paris Agreement.”

The climate talks were accompanied by protests from indigenous people and environmental groups that reflected the growing frustration, particularly among young people, at the slow pace of governments’ efforts to curb climate change.

“The Paris Agreement may have been the victim of a hit-and-run by a handful of powerful carbon economies, but they are on the wrong side of this struggle, the wrong side of history,” said Jennifer Morgan, Greenpeace International’s executive director.

“Climate blockers like Brazil and Saudi Arabia, enabled by an irresponsibly weak Chilean leadership, peddled carbon deals and steamrolled scientists and civil society,” Morgan said.

Chile chaired the talks, which had to be moved to Madrid amid violent anti-government protests back home. Despite the pressure, the Chilean government of President Sebastián Piñera supported holding on to coal-fired power plants until 2040.

Countries agreed to designate funds for the most vulnerable countries to compensate them for the effects of extreme weather, one of the most pressing issues for small island states, despite the U.S. resistance to the liability issue. The delegates didn’t clarify how to mobilize $100 billion per year in climate financing by 2020, as it had been agreed in Paris.

The European Union and Canada adopted plans to become carbon-neutral by mid-century, but activists said their leadership failed to resonate among other world powers.

About 80 countries, less than half of those taking part in the talks and accounting altogether for about onetenth of global emissions, expressed intentions to upgrade their pledges next year for net zero emissions targets by 2050.

Nearly 400 cities, more than 780 businesses and 16 investors with more than $4 trillion in assets committed to similar goals.

Observers said big emissions emitters such as China, the United States and India need to stop shirking their responsibilities.

“Regressive governments put profit over the planetary crisis and the future of generations to come,” the conservation group WWF said in a statement.

Mountford said the talks this year “reflect how disconnected country leaders are from the urgency of the science and the demands of their citizens in the streets.”

“They need to wake up in 2020,” she said.