UN Climate Change News, 25 June 2019 – Chile's Environment Minister and incoming COP25 President Carolina Schmidt and the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change Patricia Espinosa today co-signed the bilateral agreement which forms the legal basis for organizing and hosting the UN Climate Change Conference in Santiago de Chile, Chile, this year (COP25, 2-13 December).

The conference is organized by the Bonn-based UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC/ UN Climate Change) and is presided over by Chile.  

COP25 is being dubbed the "COP of action" and will build on the successful outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference COP24 in Poland last year, which resulted in the Katowice climate package.

As the host of COP25, Chile has a unique opportunity to demonstrate its leadership on ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier this month, Chile announced its plan to completely phase out coal by 2040 and its objective to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

This is a major step for a country with a 40% coal share in their electricity mix and is a prime example of the type of action required to limit the global average temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5°C, the central goal of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The COP Presidency rotates among the following 5 United Nations regions: Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.