This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.It was all about the climate this week. At three big climate conferences around the world, there was a tension missing from previous events. The climate is changing fast, and societies, economies and corporations can forget about business as usual. The issue no longer has shades of grey – it’s all fire-engine red.
On Friday afternoon, as the Madrid conference was winding down, talks on the crucial Article 6 of the 2015 Paris Agreement were going into overtime, though there was no guarantee of consensus because the usual suspects – the United States, Australia, Brazil – were said to be engaging in blocking tactics. The article was the focus of the UN’s so-called COP25 conference.
The implications of the institutional and legal momentum behind the creation of a carbon-neutral economy in little more than a generation are hard to overstate, all the more so since hydrocarbon production continues to rise as populations grow and developing countries move up the wealth ladder – they too want cars, air conditioners and airline tickets.