2020 is going to be a difficult year for international climate diplomats after what many saw as a disappointing outcome at the UN climate conference, COP25, in Madrid. In this environment, analysts say the European Union and Germany will play an important role in getting efforts to raise global ambition back on track.

“The outcome revealed just how tough the geopolitics of climate ambition will be next year,” said Quentin Genard, acting head of the Brussels office of climate change think tank E3G. The least ambitious countries had been able to slow down the talks and the lack of strong political momentum beyond the EU made it hard to produce an ambitious outcome. “We cannot afford to sleepwalk into COP26. It should be the peak of a year of engagement and announcements,” Genard told Clean Energy Wire.

After the gavel came down in Madrid, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a message on Twitter that he was disappointed, “but we must not give up. […] I am more determined than ever to work for 2020 to be the year in which all countries commit to do what science tells us is necessary to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 and a no more than 1.5 degree temperature rise.”