Mixed reaction to COP24 climate talks in Poland

18 December 2018

The commonest reaction to the outcome of the COP24 climate change talks in Katowice, Poland, which ended last Saturday, seems to have been one of relief that a degree of agreement was reached on writing a 'common rulebook' to implement decisions made in principle at the COP21 Paris talks in December 2015. 

The main requirement of the rulebook agreed so far is that all countries will have to report their emissions – and progress in cutting them – every two years from 2024.  However agreement could not be reached over carbon credits, which are awarded to countries for their emissions-cutting efforts and their carbon sinks, such as forests, which absorb carbon, and which count towards countries’ emissions-cutting targets.  Owing to insistence by Brazil on wording which others felt would operate unfairly to its advantage, this issue has been put off until next year.

Another contentious issue was whether the conference should 'welcome' or merely 'note' the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the urgent measures required to limit the global rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees.

You can find a range of quoted reactions, and links to comment and analysis from The Guardian and Carbon Brief websites, on our  Home / Climate Change page.