On the one hand, this 25th UN Climate Change Conference has a mainly technical agenda. On the other hand, it is set against the backdrop of ever clearer scientific evidence and real-world experience that the world needs to change its course if the goal of the Paris Agreement is to be met and global warming to be limited to as close as possible to 1.5 °C. SEI Research Fellow Cleo Verkuijl identifies key ways in which COP25 can deliver on climate ambition.
Feature / Here are some of the key tasks parties to the UNFCCC have before them at COP25.
SEI's main media contact for week 1 of COP25 (2–8 December) is Emily Yehle, [email protected]. For week 2 (9–13 December) our main media contact is Andrea Lindblom, [email protected]. We'll be tweeting at SEIclimate.
The Chilean COP25 Presidency has stressed time and again that this conference needs to be about “ambition, ambition, ambition”. About ambitiously reducing emissions, ambitiously adapting to climate change – and ambitiously financing both. Our research offers insights into how we can increase ambition on all three counts. Despite the clear message from science that we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming, emissions have actually risen in the last decade. According to the UN Environment Programme’s latest Emissions Gap Report, there is also no sign they will peak any time soon. Besides the Emissions Gap, SEI and partners, including the UNEP, have now for the first time quantified the Production Gap – the gap between the amount of fossil fuels countries are planning to produce, and production levels that would be in line with the Paris Agreement’s temperature targets.
Feature / The new Production Gap Report shows that the world is on track to produce 120% more fossil fuels than can be burned under 1.5°C warming.
Perspective / SEI's Derik Broekhoff explains the importance of COP 25 to offsets — and how Paris Agreement rules could drive significant mitigation.
Feature / Countries are working to strengthen their NDCs and boost emission reductions. We take a look at how NDCs are created and the challenges they face.
Perspective / Boosting carbon sinks is crucial in achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. But it has to be done right, and at scale.
The Paris Agreement has established adaptation as a global goal. But current adaptation plans too often fail to recognize that we live in a globalized world – a world in which both the impacts of climate change and the responses to them cross borders in the same way people, goods and services do. Our work looks at this “border-crossing” or transboundary nature of climate risk and at how that changes the scope and nature of the adaptation challenge.
Perspective / Guidance for national adaptation planning needs to help Least Developed Countries assess indirect climate risks.
Other publication / The report explores gender issues in climate change adaptation.
Perspective / Asian River Deltas make up "the breadbasket of the world" but are sinking and shrinking due to climate change and poor management. How do we respond?
Perspective / In a globalized world, the impacts of climate change cross borders. The Adaptation Without Borders initiative responds to this challenge.
Developed countries have committed to mobilizing USD 100 billion annually in climate finance by 2020. That date is drawing near. With total climate finance at USD 71.2 billion in 2017, a September 2019 OECD report said this goal was “still attainable.” But the report also showed that only one-fifth of climate finance was going to adaptation. We look at another problem with climate finance: the fact that large parts of the money committed to it are not being spent.
Perspective / Data from SEI’s Aid Atlas tool highlights problems with spending funds aimed at tackling climate change. This needs urgent attention.
“There are no two paths to sustainable development,” COP25 President Carolina Schmidt has said, “any path to sustainable development has to include climate action.” But our research shows that incoherence between climate and development policies remains a real and widespread problem.
Perspective / The disconnect between global climate and sustainable development agendas is often reflected in policy incoherence at the national level fostering inequality.
Perspective / Easy-to-use tools connecting climate action and other SDGs are what is needed to increase policy coherence and maximize climate and SDG synergies.
SEI brief / The NDC-SDG Connections tool shows there is great potential for policy coherence between implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Perspective / National climate action plans are often framed narrowly and may overlook important aspects of climate change and development.
Contact details for SEI experts that will be at COP25.
SEI is participating in a host of side events.
Past event / Our Aid Atlas platform shows we know little about the finance furthering the oceans agenda. How can we change that?
Past event / Watch this UNFCCC side event live on December 3 to explore the findings of the new Production Gap Report and opportunities to wind down fossil fuel production.
Past event / The event will explore the credibility of Article 6 as a means to promote ambition in climate change mitigation.
Past event / In the Talanoa tradition, panelists will share solutions for closing the production gap during this event in the Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion at COP25.
Past event / An introduction to the IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas.
Past event / This roundtable will look at the implementation of specific initiatives on food and agriculture aiming for an hunger free world and resilient agri food system.
Past event / To limit global temperatures’ increase to 1.5°C a major shift towards sustainable land use is required.
Past event / Aether and SEI bring a panel of experts together to discuss the essential and growing needs for specialist data on climate impacts.
Past event / Can countries integrate actions to mitigate climate change with solutions to public health challenges, like air pollution whilst boosting NDC goals?
Past event / Let's reimagine adaptation and develop a vision of what it can look like to meet the challenges of an interconnected world.
Past event / What role does the Arctic play in the Global Climate System? Join us for a Think & Talk event during COP25.
Past event / Addressing climate risks and meeting climate-resilient, low-emission development needs will require a new generation of knowledge management tools.
Past event / How can we adapt the economic system to become circular? Attend online or in person on Dec. 11 to hear what is required from political leadership and policy.
Past event / Youth climate activists Greta Thunberg and Luisa Neubauer host a conversation with leading climate scientists, including SEI Senior Scientist Sivan Kartha.
Media advisory / SEI's Richard Klein comments on the decision of the COP Bureau to have a three-week virtual meeting instead of the usual in-person negotiations.
Media coverage / Kevin M. Adams, Research Fellow at SEI was interviewed by the news agency Associated Press at COP 25 in Madrid.
Perspective / An SEI Research Associate attended COP25 but found that the most powerful debate on climate justice was happening outside the official negotiations.
