MADRID — Marathon international climate talks ended Sunday with negotiators postponing until next year a key decision on how to regulate global carbon markets.
After two weeks of negotiations in Madrid on tackling global warming, delegates from almost 200 nations passed declarations calling for greater ambition in cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases and in helping poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change.
But despite holding the longest climate talks ever in 25 nearly annual editions they left one of the thorniest issues for the next summit in Glasgow, in a year’s time.
Carbon markets put a price on emission of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, and allows countries or companies to trade emissions permits that can be steadily reduced — encouraging the uptake of low-emission technologies.
Countries from Europe and elsewhere had said that no deal on how to govern the exchange of carbon credits was better than a weak one that could undermine a dozen or so existing regional carbon mechanisms.
Despite the pressure to deliver a positive outcome, activists criticized the Chilean government of President Santiago Piñera for holding on to coal-fired power plants until 2040.
Helen Mountford from World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank, said the talks “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 added. (AP News)