The 25th Conference of the Parties pursuant to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) ended with little movement to tackle the climate crisis.

Many NGO participants at COP25 criticized the conference as weakening the international framework for global climate change action.

The US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, India and other big polluters were accused of obstructing climate change action and even backtracking on previous promises. Countries like Australia and Brazil were accused of seeking loopholes to water down an international trading mechanism for a workable “carbon market” to help reduce emissions.

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres expressed his “disappointment” at what happened.

Guterres has staked his legacy on tackling the climate breakdown, but the office of the Secretary General is little more than a bully pulpit, and has few substantive powers, with respect to the treaty framework that governs climate negotiations.

Climate lawyer Farhana Yamin summarised the views of many that the US, in particular, had poisoned the talks:

Youth activist Alexandria Villaseñor described a “failure”.

Climate change threatens to create a world of “climate apartheid” that may destroy the international human rights framework.

Fundamental human rights, including the right to life, are gravely threatened by climate change.

The failure of the global system to tackle this challenge stands as an indictment against it. Powerful interests—interests that would prefer to maintain the status quo for as long as possible, presumably to extract as many fossil fuels as possible—have proven themselves capable of defraying and delaying action to forestall terrifying changes to the global climate system.

The failure of our species to change its ways will cause irreparable, severe, and permanent damage to our global civilization.

A complete breakdown of the world’s climate system is imminent.

Dave Inder Comar is the co-founder of Human Rights Pulse and a practising attorney.

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