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As Madrid hosts climate meet, Spanish embassy carries torch in Amman

By Maram Kayed - Dec 04,2019 - Last updated at Dec 06,2019

AMMAN — Coinciding with Spain’s hosting of the 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25) in Madrid, the Spanish embassy held a meeting in Amman to discuss environmental issues.

Calling climate change “the biggest challenge of our time”, Spanish Ambassador to Jordan Aránzazu Bañón Dávalos said that countries around the world “are beginning to sense its dangers”.

With more than 50 world leaders and 25,000 attendees, COP25 in Madrid is the final conference on the issue before 2020. The next conference, to be held next year in Glasgow, Scotland, is expected to discuss “much more ambitious policies”, according to Dávalos.

By 2030, carbon emissions are supposed to be reduced by 45 per cent, with the expectation of reaching zero per cent by 2050, according to UNDP Environment Programme Manager Nedal Al Ouran.

Assessing the loss and damage caused by environmental change and building the financial capital needed to fight the issue top the agenda of the ongoing COP25, held from December 2 until December 13, Ouran said at the meeting.

“It is a critical moment in all our lives. Climate change has no borders. There needs to be a radical change in our lifestyle, as well as a collective effort from governments, big corporations and individuals,” said the Spanish ambassador.

She mentioned that three or four years ago, people in Jordan and across the world “did not feel the urgency of the issue as they do today”.

In Jordan as well as other countries, Ouran said the main challenge remains providing the necessary finances for combatting the issue.

COP25 was initially planned to be held in Chile, but a wave of protests demanding greater social justice there moved the location of the meeting.

Chilean Ambassador to Jordan Rodrigo Espinosa Aguirre said his country took the decision to cancel their hosting of the conference to focus on “restoring order and pushing through a new social plan”.

“However, through Spain’s generous hosting of the conference on such short notice, we have retained the presidency of the conference.”

 “We plan to retain the sense of urgency to the issue,” he added.

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