Posted on December, 14 2019

Commenting on the latest text issued by the COP25 presidency this morning, Vanessa Perez-Cirera, WWF head of delegation to COP25 said:

“The extremely weak draft decision text made available this morning is shocking, especially in regards to climate ambition. We are in a climate crisis - references to enhancing climate pledges (or NDCs) in 2020 are desperately needed in this draft text and they have been virtually eliminated.

This version of the draft text is unacceptable.

“We appreciate those Parties, like Belize, Grenada, the EU, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore and Colombia among others, who indicated their support for ambition to be strongly reflected in the draft text. Important to highlight is that the Parties calling for strong ambition text straddle the traditional divide at COP between high and low income countries.

The COP President must now go back to the drawing board and bring forward a balanced and representative text that is aligned with ambition language that calls Parties to enhance their NDCs in 2020 in line with what science requires.

“Colombia for example said 'an outcome for the sake of an outcome is simply not enough.' We couldn’t agree more. It is imperative that Parties push to have an explicit reference to enhance climate pledges in 2020.

“We cannot kick-off the Paris Agreement with pledges that take us to a 3°C plus world. This is not what Parties agreed in Paris,“ Pérez-Cirera emphasized.

“As the spokesperson from the Marshall Islands said in the stocktaking, ‘we appear to be going backwards when we should be going for a quantum leap in the other direction’.

“This was called the ‘ambition COP’. It must live up to the expectations of people on the streets, of citizens, and vulnerable communities suffering from the impacts of the climate crisis and the hope of millions for a world we can thrive in.”

ends.

Media contact

For more information, interviews and visuals to accompany contact: Karen Richards, WWF Media Relations Manager, krichards@wwfint.org +44 7775 552592 

About WWF

WWF is an independent conservation organization, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Visit www.panda.org/news for latest news and media resources and follow us on Twitter @WWF_media.

Image: Photo by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth