Amsterdam, Netherlands, 29 November 2019 — At COP25, world leaders have an opportunity to overcome growing global skepticism that they’re able to end the scientifically-predicted climate emergency. To deliver climate justice and prevent human rights abuses being inflicted upon billions of people by runaway climate change, governments must finalise the Paris Agreement rulebook and cap temperature rise at 1.5° celsius.
Read about Greenpeace’s expectations at the COP25 here.
Following the IPCC issuing a dire warning and the recent UN Emissions Gap Report it’s time for leaders to turn commitments into action and:
- Urgently enhance their climate action targets, and outline a roadmap for NDC submissions in 2020
- Ensure the costs of the energy transition are not passed down to the people, and that vulnerable communities are supported to react to climate impacts
- Avoid riddling the Paris Agreement with carbon market loopholes that undercut ambition and threaten environmental integrity.
- Listen to the science and the people, not to powerful extractive industries that block climate progress
Greenpeace Chile national director, Matías Asun, said:
“To keep the presidency of the COP25 means that the Chilean government must show real leadership in the face of the climate emergency in Chile and internationally. Today our situation is devastating; we have had the worst drought in the last decades, and yet at least 40% of our energy still comes from dirty coal plants, meanwhile our oceans suffer the exploitative impacts of the destructive industries on a daily basis. It’s clear that the lack of commitment and leadership from the government is a direct cause of the social uprising that we are facing, because social injustice fundamentally includes ecological and climate injustice. Our Governments must defend the environment and stand up to the business elites so that we can move forward with real action, and not cosmetic changes.”
Greenpeace Spain executive director, Mario Rodríguez Vargas, said:
“The COP25 must catalyze the formation of a stable government in Spain which makes fighting climate change a priority. There is a clear opportunity for the Spanish government to show leadership within the EU for much more climate ambition along with other progressive countries. The new Spanish government must improve its national climate objectives and raise ambition by committing to reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990. Not the pitiable 20% currently proposed.”
Greenpeace International executive director, Jennifer Morgan, said:
“In Madrid, leaders have an opportunity to meet this crisis head-on and they must seize it. The latest models tell us the impacts are coming even harder and faster than we anticipated when we negotiated the Paris Agreement in 2015.
At the heart of the Paris Agreement is a ratchet system that allows the agreement to be responsive to new science, and COP25 needs to create the conditions for it to succeed. Leaders who are bound by Paris must use these negotiations in Madrid as a springboard for 2020, and show us a roadmap for submitting ambitious, enhanced national climate targets next year. Decision-makers have to show they care about the vulnerable communities most at risk and not powerful, profit-driven industry forces, and move to step up climate ambition and action immediately.”
ENDS
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Contacts:
Arin de Hoog, Greenpeace International, [email protected], | +31 646 197 329
Conrado Garcia del Vado, Greenpeace Spain, [email protected] | +34 660 47 12 67
Greenpeace International Press Desk: [email protected] | +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours)
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