2019, year of all records. Hurricanes, floods and fires were numerous and violent. The temperatures, they, climbed more than of reason, according to Météo France. Record in the streets, too: millions of young people have participated worldwide in the "global climate strikes", driven by a Greta Thunberg who has become the ecologist icon of this year.
In Madrid, the meeting promises to be tense for the 196 signatory countries of the Paris Agreement (2015), since the US decision to leave. Meeting at a COP25 under the Chilean presidency, the States Parties will have to revise their climatic ambitions upwards in order to achieve the objectives necessary for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement.
- Supporting people who are irreversibly affected by climate disruption
How does a country recover from a hurricane, like Kenneth who last April swept Mozambique? How to deal with the consequences of rising sea levels?
Assistance to developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change will be one of the main points of contention at this new international climate conference.
Associations and NGOs highlight the inevitable link between the fight against climate change and the fight against inequalities. "This is something that is not sufficiently taken into account or even denied by the developed countries, while they are existing," said Lucile Dufour, head of international policies at the Climate Action Network NGO. It specifies that the question of loss and damage is nevertheless the subject of a specific article in the Paris Agreement. Lucile Dufour will be among the leaders of NGOs present in Madrid from 2 to 13 December. "Since then, developed countries have turned a deaf ear and deny the existence of this article and the needs associated with it".
"It is necessary to find financial means to support the populations concerned, and innovative means so that it does not weigh any more on the budgets of the countries, already very constrained", estimates Lucile Dufour whose mission is also to coordinate the work of the Network Climat & Développement, which brings together about sixty French-speaking African NGOs around climate issues.
Among the suggestions of environmental associations: tax companies that exploit fossil fuels, tax the aviation sector, or freeze the debts of developing states when one of them is facing a major climate disaster to quickly unlock funds.
This is precisely what COP25 should serve, according to Lucile Dufour, "to recreate the link between developed and developing countries so that this mechanism of solidarity exists to fight against climate change, and face its consequences".
Northern countries have pledged to raise Green Climate Fund funding to $ 100 billion a year by 2020.
According to the latest OECD report, these figures are up, with 71.2 billion in 2017. But the countries of the South now claim an acceleration of negotiations on the financing of "losses and damages" suffered, NGO group recently estimated at 300 billion a year in 2030.
The COP25, ultimate rehearsal before COP26? "This is a very important COP because it comes on the eve of the year 2020, which is the year when countries have to adopt more ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets", explains Lucile Dufour. If we miss this preparation, it will be very difficult then to get back on track to limit global warming, "she adds." This COP is a necessary step: if at its end, we do not do not have the prerequisites, we will tackle 2020 with a big handicap ".
- Definition of rules and a stricter framework for carbon markets
The new carbon markets are also one of the main challenges of this COP. According to the NGOs, countries should be prohibited from counting the emissions reductions exchanged several times, and exclude from trade emissions reductions made before 2020 which represent 4 billion tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of the total emissions of CO2 emissions. EU in 2016
This system, created under the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, which aims to reduce GHG emissions via a carbon trading system between countries, is "riddled with flaws", denounces Lucile Dufour.
The principle was to transform CO2 into economic assets that can be traded by issuing companies on a carbon exchange, taking into account certain quotas.
Except that poorly defined and poorly framed, these rules today allow the exchange of emission reductions that do not exist, or are out of date, even to count several times reductions that have occurred only once time.
"If rules allow us to cheat on these accounts, we will never achieve the objectives of the Paris agreement," says Lucile Dufour, advocating the establishment of a strict framework of these carbon markets.
In addition, it has also created risks, particularly for the respect of human rights. These carbon markets have made it possible to finance GHG emission reduction projects that have severely penalized local populations. The creation of huge hydroelectric dams has, for example, led to the flooding of lands of indigenous peoples, including in Panama, depriving them of land to cultivate, polluting their waterways, and causing many deaths, injuries and displaced .
- Increase greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in 2020
NGOs want the countries most responsible for climate change to take the lead.
According to Enerdata, the G20 countries were responsible in 2018 for 80% of global GHG emissions. "It is they who will have to do their fair share of the effort," says Lucile Dufour, referring more specifically to the case of the European Union. "Currently, its target is - 40% of GHG emissions by 2030 gold, to be compatible with the Paris agreement, it will have to be - 65%".
According to the NGO, the current inaction would lead the world to produce 120% of fossil energy (coal, gas, oil) more than what would be necessary to limit the warming to 1,5 ° C.
The COP25 must therefore be a call for the coherence of the States, call also valid for France which, in 2018, exceeded its carbon budget of 4,5%.
It should have a strong position as an EU country and speak out for the increase of EU climate targets. However, the latter, brought to the European level, remain well beyond those fixed at national level.
"To be credible and coherent, France will have to be able, during this COP25, to announce how it intends to implement additional measures in order to meet its own objectives, particularly in the transport, building and agriculture, which are the most emitting, "insists the manager, who regrets that Emmanuel Macron does not go to Madrid for the occasion.
The Paris Agreement had confirmed the central objective of containing the increase in average temperature below 2 ° C, and to try to limit this increase to 1.5 ° C. "Next year, countries will have to return to the negotiating table with new targets, so COP25 serves to set the course for 2020: who will do what, when and how."