Climate Changed
Climate Fight Takes a Blow With No Deal on Carbon Markets
- Envoys weakened language they had agreed four years ago
- Some nations were counting on markets to meet emissions goals
A wind turbine operates near emissions rising from a power plant in Barenbrueck, Germany.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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The international effort to rein in fossil fuel pollution took a step backward this weekend after envoys at a marathon round of United Nations talks watered down language on issues they had agreed on in previous years.
The delegates from almost 200 nations left Madrid after more than two weeks of discussion, agreeing only on the “urgent need” for countries to make deeper cuts to greenhouse gases. They shelved work on adding market mechanisms as a tool for countries to meet their goals and couldn’t agree about finance needed to fix the problem.