COP24 Meeting Concludes with Disappointing Agreement

FEATURING JOSE BRAVO – The UN climate negotiations in Katowice, Poland wrapped up on Saturday after 2 weeks. The resulting deal is focused on the implementation of the 2015 Paris Accord. The final agreement was signed on to by 196 nations and consists of a set of rules governing how individual countries can implement the 2015 Paris Accord by cutting carbon emissions, finance developing nations’ transitions to clean energy, and hold each other accountable.

But there were also political battles over the very science that forms the basis of the climate meetings, in particular the latest IPCC report on climate. China took a leading role while the US shrank it’s posturing. Brazil nearly upended the agreement over how to govern carbon markets. And Turkey insisted on being treated as a developing nation in order to be eligible for climate financing.

Time has run out for the climate however.

Jose Bravo is the Executive Director of the Just Transition Alliance (JTA) based in San Diego, CA.