Marathon UN climate talks limp to an end with little to show.

Byline: Rina Saeed Khan

MADRID -- A marathon UN summit came to a dismal end on Sunday after being extended for two days but very little to show, squeezing hard-earned compromises from countries over a global warming battle plan that fell well short of what science says is needed to tackle the climate crisis.

The gap between rich countries and poor countries widened further with nothing decided on Loss and Damage (compensation for vulnerable countries hit by climate change). No money and no agreement on Article 6, which was to set up international carbon markets, could be reached.

Kashmala Kakakhel, a climate finance expert serving on Pakistan's official delegation to COP25 who stayed up for the last two nights, said there was lots of disappointment as the summit concluded today. The theme for this year's UN climate conference was 'Time for Action' with a clock ticking close to midnight, but by Sunday morning it was clear not much was going to be salvaged.

'This COP aimed to settle some of the critical aspects for full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement in 2020. However, developed countries demonstrated unwillingness to progress on issues critical for countries like Pakistan to undertake ambitious climate actions. In some ways, the spirit of Paris Agreement has been lost in translation,' Kakakhel said.

The United States, in particular, continued to water down all attempts of setting a strategic global financial target according to which developing countries could plan projects and initiatives. 'The worst part was the lack of understanding of how to go about developing a robust market mechanism for carbon credits, a version of which has already been unsuccessful in achieving climate objectives,' she maintained.

Harjeet Singh, Action Aid's global lead on climate change, said: 'The US has once again gotten its way through bullying and tricks... as fires rage and cyclones intensify, rich countries have folded their arms, refusing to offer the new systems and money so urgently needed to help countries forced to pick up the pieces after disasters'.

'This decision only offers statements of intent, working groups and networks, which should have been in place years ago. This result fails to offer a helping hand to climate survivors in the Global South who did the least to cause the crisis,' he added.

The COP25 deal 'expresses the urgent need' for new carbon cutting commitments to close the gap between current emissions and the Paris...