Close to 200 countries that signed the Paris Climate Accord joined the talks in Katowice, Poland. The summit, which began on 3 December, dragged on for almost two weeks and concluded on 16 December. The two weeks of negotiations, including four all-night negotiating sessions when delegates brought along their sleeping bags, ended with a landmark deal on a set of rules that would govern the implementation of the pact.
The Paris Climate Agreement was an ambitious deal that was signed in 2015. This time the discussion contents were circulating in finding the more robust rules and to achieve the minus 2 degrees C to limit the global warming.
But the rise of both nationalism and populism led to the U.S., oil producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and Russia working against the UN’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C. They almost successfully sabotaged the pact. Climate change is the greatest challenge to mankind and no country can deny its mighty power.
Activists demanding a more ambitious climate deal protested inside and outside the convention center, Greenpeace International being the most significant of the groups.
The goal of this conference is now for developed and developing countries to use the same rules and timetables for reporting emissions.