COP 25 - Time to Act

After the official announcement that Chile would no longer host the upcoming COP 25 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) due to its socio-political crisis in the country, all States that are Parties to the Convention will meet in new venue - Madrid, Spain from 2 to 13 December 2019 under the presidency of the Chilean government. Its motto is: "Time to act", in Spanish "Tiempo de actuar". A key task for the COP is to review the national communications and emission inventories submitted by Parties. Based on this information, the COP assesses the effects of the measures taken by Parties and the progress made in achieving the ultimate objective of the Convention.

The COP 25 is the twenty-fifth Conference of the Parties on climate change, sponsored by the UN, held every year since 1995. The main objective of COP 25 is to review the ambition of the countries (Parties to the Convention) and adjust them to the levels required by the Paris Agreement, as well as finalise the guidelines to make the agreement be fully operational.

The main topics will be focused on the Oceans and Antarctica, discussed this year at the IPCC meeting in Monaco. The report highlights the need to "act urgently in order to prioritize timely, ambitious and coordinated initiatives to address lasting changes in the oceans and the cryosphere that are unprecedented." The cryosphere, that is solid state water, such as glaciers, snow, ice and permafrost "are decreasing and will continue to do so, and according to projections this will increase the dangers for people, for example, in the form of landslides, avalanches, rockfalls and floods. "

COP 25 will also focus on renewable energy, circular economy, ecosystems, biodiversity and electromobility.

On the same note, TERRE Policy Centre, an observer party to COP would participate in the side events, wherein it will talk about its Women-led initiative in reducing Climate Change impacts & its innovation in Climate literacy in Climate Change Education. One of its flagship project, Smart Campus Cloud Network (SCCN) will actively engage with the delegates of educational campuses attending the Conference. Emphasizing this project, TERRE will be hosting press conferences during the COP 25 with the following objectives: 

1. Rapid action on climate crisis: Global Network of University campus for action using digital technologies like IoT, Cloud and AI.
2. Release of campus guidelines for single use plastics and sustainable landscape for carbon neutral campus.
3. Announcement of scaling-up TERRE Olympiad -Online quiz for campus on climate and SDGs globally.
4. Creating Carbon sink through unique collaborations among business, government and universities : Urban forestry