Hopes dwindle at COP24 as climate talks draw to a close

Hopes dwindle at COP24 as climate talks draw to a close
By Euronews
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Delegates' confidence is waning as they struggle to agree a rulebook for implementing the landmark Paris Agreement before Saturday.

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Hopes are fast fading that the COP24 climate talks in Katowice will produce a strict enough rulebook on how to implement emissions cuts.

At the United Nations summit - marred by environmental protests and provocative fossil fuel presentations - delegates from almost 200 nations have been working to write the rules for how to implement the landmark Paris Agreement.

However, after two weeks of discussions, reaching a consensus on how best to go about it has proved difficult.

Business leaders at the talks have warned that the rules envoys are drawing up are may be too vague to change the way they work.

Envoys and environmental groups joined them in expressing frustration that the process wasn't moving fast enough.

They say the lack of specifics would hold up much needed investment.

MEP Bas Eickhout of the European Green Party told Euronews that he thinks an agreement can be reached by Saturday, but questions remain.

"I think there will be a rulebook," he said. "It will be a compromise... It will be a mixed bag. Whether there will be conclusions that are really tough on whether we need to do more as a world, that's going to be the big question and we really don't know yet what they will look like.

"So yes there will be a rulebook, but whether it will be enough remains to be seen."

Meanwhile, another MEP, Yannick Jadot, was less optimistic.

It's very frustrating because we had the Paris agreement that had revived the international community facing the climate challenge," he said.

"We had the IPCC report which told us that we cannot risk passing a 1.5 degree increase. And we have governments which always seem to postpone climate action."

He said governments aren't making enough effort to shift away from fossil fuels.

"Society is ready, businesses are ready, people are ready, but governments seem to have been taken prisoner by gas, oil, coal, nuclear energy, the auto industry, and in the end they aren't meeting the needs of the people," he said.

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