Agreement reached at Poland climate summit; Dutch delegation "satisfied"

An agreement was signed at the United Nations climate summit in Katowice, Poland on Saturday. The Dutch delegation and government are satisfied with the result, NU.nl reports.

Over the past two weeks nearly 200 countries negotiated on how to best achieve the goals set in the Paris Climate Agreement three years ago. In the Paris Agreement leaders from a large part of the world agreed to limit global warming to at most 2 degrees Celsius, but aiming for no more than 1.5 degrees, compared to the era before industrialization. In Poland the countries now tried to establish how this will be achieved through reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping poor countries deal with the effects of climate change, among other things.

The summit was actually set to end on Friday, but the talks were more difficult than expected. The 156 pages of agreements are "a thousand small steps forward" and people can be proud of that, Michal Kurtyka, chairman of the summit said.

Marcel Beukeboom, who led the Dutch delegation, is satisfied with the agreements made. "This was the most feasible for now", he said to NU.nl. "There are agreements on the five annual national climate plans, on reports on emissions and the reduction thereof, and on the inclusion of the results of the Talanoa dialogue in the improved national climate plans." In the Talanoa dialogue, existing agreements on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions were examined.

According to Beukeboom, the agreements will lead to a "clearer international regime in which countries can better be held to climate agreements." That is beneficial to the Netherlands, he said. "As a vulnerable but small country we have a great interest in taking action world wide."

Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate is also pleased that agreements were made. "Now it is important that everyone fulfills these agreements with concrete measures", Wiebes said to the newspaper.