What’s the point? Ten years after the Paris treaty, are climate talks getting anywhere? — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Paris agreement entered COP31 at an impasse after Brazil kept concrete national emissions-cut plans off the COP30 negotiating table in Belém; the 2025 summit nevertheless ended with a deal few delegates loved.
- UN now puts its most optimistic warming estimate at 1.7-1.8C, after temperatures exceeded the Paris agreement’s 1.5C limit for two years.
- US withdrew from the Paris agreement under Trump despite being responsible for about one in eight tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted today.
- COP31 is hosted by Australia and presided over by Turkey even as Australia has set no end to fossil-fuel exports and Turkey plans to increase its carbon output; consensus rules have also let Trump allies in Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela veto measures.
- Colombia hosted an April alternative meeting where nearly 60 countries agreed to draft their own national roadmaps for the “transition away from fossil fuels”; France, Germany and the Netherlands have already done so.
- China, the world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter, has taken multilateral climate efforts more seriously as its economic stakes in decarbonization have grown; Chinese EVs now make up more than 40% of Vietnam’s car sales.
- COP31 is the venue for a potential 35% electricity target for 2035, up from 23% today; Jan Rosenow estimates full electrification would halve total final energy use.
Why it matters: Most rich countries’ reductions in climate-finance contributions leave poorer governments with less support just as nearly 60 countries agree to a concrete fossil-fuel roadmap process outside COP. With the UN’s optimistic estimate at 1.7-1.8C, this shift moves national planning outside treaty-level implementation, while Paris remains short of its 1.5C goal.
Ask SkimNews
