COP25 climate change conference in Madrid

COP 25 in Madrid, Spain word cloud
COP 25 in Madrid, Spain word cloud.jpg © Shutterstock

The COP25 climate change conference was held in Madrid, Spain, from 2 to 15 December 2019, under the presidency of the Chilean government. It aimed to complete the rules for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and address a range of other issues. In advance of COP25, the European Parliament tabled questions to the European Commission and the Council and adopted a resolution during the November II plenary session.

The 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aimed to address the outstanding issues on the rulebook for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, notably rules on Article 6 that would allow countries to meet, in part, domestic mitigation targets through market mechanisms such as carbon markets. Other points on the programme included international climate finance, matters relating to least developed countries, and gender issues, a high-level event on forests, and the launch of a platform for science-based ocean solutions.

On 28 November 2019, Parliament adopted a motion for a resolution supporting a 55 % reduction of EU emission by 2030, and calling on the European Council to support net-zero EU greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest. Parliament also called for more financial support to fight climate change and on all EU countries to phase out all direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies by 2020.