The 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) finished in Poland's Katowice on December 14. During the 12-day conference (December 2-14), countries settled on most of the rules for putting the Paris accord into practice, including the methods of measuring and verifying how emissions are being cut, which is crucial for the success of the agreement as it will hold all countries to the same standard.

However, no agreement was reached in the negotiation on carbon credits or further commitments to reduce emissions. Future bargaining between the states waits next year in Chile.

The Katowice climate conference achieved what it was expected to, which was to set detailed rules to operationalize the Paris Agreement. Barbara Finamore, the founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) China program, is impressed by the outcome that delegates have reached hundreds of pages of evaluation scheme. The framework further regulates how developed country should provide climate finance to developing countries, clarifies every individual country's accountability and ambition in fighting climate change, and provides an alert on the rapid climate change from a UN report.

Ella Wang, the China Program Manager with World Wildlife Fund China, shares her experience at the climate conference in Poland. The experience of climate change suffering is different between countries, therefore some of the states are more concerned about it than others. Thus there is a lack of political ambition to tackle the problem for those who are not so suffered.

Upmanu Lall, the director of the Columbia Water Center at Columbia University, is rather pessimistic about the conference. He is not sure of any concrete progress was shown. In previous years, climate conferences have gone into a situation where there was much dialogue but a limited amount of action, which is mostly coming on renewable energies because of China's initiators.

Paul Bledsoe, the strategic adviser with the Progressive Policy Institute, focuses on the status quo. He points out that the emissions are now spiking back up again despite the steadiness in the previous three years. We are losing the battle with climate change right now. It is important to recognize that we are way behind the issue. The conference was set out to achieve the rules, but at the same time, the very countries that have signed up to their pledges are not on pace to meet them.

The future situation can be catastrophic. Barbara introduces that the UN report has shown there is an enormous difference between a 1.5 and two degree rise in temperature. Every aspect of life on Earth will be changed – more severe wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, desertification, and water shortages, etc. It is essential for every country to do what they agreed on the latest COP conference – bring stakeholders together and develop more ambitious goals. There is no time to waste on this.

Facing the dilemma of economic growth and environmental protection, developing countries lack the resources needed to do both. Ella Wang suggests that China has made concrete progress on energy transformation. However, the vast majority of developing countries still require investment in their energy infrastructure, and they need support from other countries to build their renewable industries.

Currently, the world has the technology to reduce the emission. The costs of wind and solar energies have gone down significantly over the past decade. Now, what the world lacks are the political will and incentives to deploy these energies and to substitute fossil fuels. Paul suggests that China, the U.S. and the EU alone account for half of the global emissions, and the G20s account for 80 percent. Therefore, big countries have to lead the way of the war with climate change.

The Heat with Anand Naidoo is a 30-minute political talk show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 7:00 a.m. BJT and 7:00 p.m. Eastern in the United States.

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