This year’s packed agenda of negotiations on climate change, biodiversity and the global ocean was supposed to address the fortunes of a living world in a critical condition. But the coronavirus pandemic is forcing drastic changes to the schedule.
The Covid-19 virus, which has infected more than 170,000 people, has hit hardest China and European countries, where several key meetings for achieving new environmental commitments have already been cancelled or postponed. More are in doubt.
The consequences seriously concern activists and experts, who have warned of the critical urgency of action to protect the planet.
The coronavirus generates the same level of uncertainty as the changes brought about by the crisis in climate and biodiversity. We are entering unknown territory, said Tom Burke, co-founder of the environmental group E3G.
The UN body that oversees international climate negotiations, the UNFCC, has cancelled or postponed all meetings in March and April, both at its headquarters in Bonn, Germany, and worldwide.
African Climate Week, due to take place from 9 March in Uganda, has been called off. Patricia Espinosa, the UNFCCC’s executive secretary, said in a statement that the evolution of the pandemic will be monitored and the status of upcoming events judged accordingly.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: Our task has been made more difficult as many summits have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. But as we work to contain it, we must use every opportunity we have to build the climate action agenda.
In June, dozens of delegates from around the world are scheduled to meet in Bonn to advance climate discussions. This now looks to be in jeopardy: the German government has called for the cancellation of all events involving more than 1,000 people.
The biggest question mark hangs over the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) on climate change, scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland. This summit is central to advancing the climate agenda after COP25 talks in Madrid failed.
To have a successful COP26, you have to guide the negotiation to a good result. If all the countries are concentrating on other problems such as coronavirus, that’s unlikely to be achieved, said Enrique Maurtua Konstantinidis, senior climate advisor at Argentina’s Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN).
COP25 was meant to resolve key points for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, including the creation of an international carbon market and getting rich countries from the Global North to help finance the poorer Global South to deal with climate change. All these key stumbling blocks are now on the Glasgow agenda.
COP26 would see signatories to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change present new commitments, known as NDCs, which are meant to raise their ambition, a critical step in curbing global emissions.
Isabel Cavelier, director of Colombian NGO Visión en Transforma said the relationship between coronavirus and climate will change over the short and longer term.
It’s positive because it leads to the reduction of emissions due to less economic activity. But at the same time, it is negative because it will lead countries to prioritise indiscriminate economic growth over climate action,” she said.
This year was also supposed to deliver new global targets for protecting biodiversity. In October, the city of Kunming in southwestern China is scheduled to host COP15, the 15th conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the most important biodiversity conference in a decade. Any new agreement on protecting nature is due to be adopted in Kunming.
Although China has yet to decide on the fate of COP15, a preparatory meeting in February was moved to Italy before the European country went into coronavirus lockdown. Fewer delegates participated in a shortened meeting in Rome.