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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An overview shows 100,000 postcards with messages against climate change near Jungfraujoch
By Nina Chestney
LONDON (Reuters) – Divisions within Europe and the tension between the United States and China is a major challenge for the next round of UN climate change talks.
The most important climate conference in the United States since the 2015 Paris agreement opens Sunday in Katowice, Poland, in one of the most polluted regions of the coal industry in Europe. According to the Polish host of the conference, success will require a miracle.
Delegates from nearly 195 nations are about to draft a "regulation" to spell out the details of the pact, which was announced by the United States, at the request of President Donald Trump, on the renunciation of the market.
The 2015 agreement aims to divert the global economy away from fossil fuels and limit the rise in global temperatures to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius to avoid extreme weather events, rising sea levels and loss of plant and animal species.
The pact was developed 20 years ago and commits almost all countries to fight against global warming. However, rules are needed to achieve real emissions reductions and ensure their close monitoring.
In October, American scientists insisted that the negotiations should lead to a positive result, saying that the world would reach the 1.5 ° C threshold by 2040 and that unprecedented changes are needed in the way people use energy.
Despite this call for unified action, there are divisions within the European Union and trade tensions between the United States and China, all of which have implications for climate policy.
The chairman of the negotiations, former Polish Deputy Minister of Energy, Michał Kurtyka, expressed the hope of a compromise while recognizing the magnitude of the task at hand .
"It is only miraculously that we can achieve success," he said last month, although miracles were "a Polish specialty".
Earlier this month, he added: "There is no doubt that the geopolitical situation of 2015 was much easier to discuss global agreements than that of 2018. However, my interviews with representatives from around the world show that 39, there is a willingness to reach a compromise in Katowice. "
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CHURCHES
Developing countries and those vulnerable to climate change, such as islands and low-lying states, rely on major industrialized countries to boost their emissions reductions.
China's climate change official Li Gao told reporters last month that some industrialized countries more responsible for climate change are falling back on the "polluter pays" principle, which "will make it difficult to find consensus." ".
In the European Union, Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected the call of European Commission chief for climate change, Miguel Arias Canete, for more ambitious goals. This goal would be counter-productive, as some European countries, including Germany, were struggling to achieve their goals.
The United States is sitting on the negotiating table until it can officially leave in November 2020 at the earliest.
He could use the time he has left to develop ammunition as part of his trade dispute with China. Former Trump Energy and Climate Advisor, George David Banks, told Reuters that his government wanted to make sure it "corrects as many flaws in the deal as possible" .
The United States has always been interested in a strong framework for the reporting and measurement of emissions reductions, particularly for developing countries such as China.
"It helps to inform your trade policy and your negotiations with the Chinese and others," said Banks.
The United States also plans to promote fossil and nuclear fuels during the talks, repeating a strategy that had angered global warming activists last year.
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