U.N. climate chief says exploring options for hosting climate talks after Chile withdraws

The United Nations' climate chief said the secretariat is exploring a range of options for hosting this year's round of climate talks in December after Chile withdrew from hosting. The talks, called COP25, were scheduled to be held in Santiago, Chile, from Dec. 2-13 but the country has withdrawn as host after several weeks of violent unrest.

They are aimed at fleshing out the details of the implementation of the landmark Paris Agreement climate pact, amid calls for urgency from environmental groups and climate protesters. "Earlier today, I was informed of the decision by the Government of Chile not to host COP25 in view of the difficult situation that the country is undergoing," U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said in a statement.

"We are currently exploring alternative hosting options," she added. The so-called Conference of the Parties (COP) is the formal meeting of parties to the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They are usually held annually and the first one was held in 1995.

This is the first time that a nation has pulled out of hosting the meeting with just a month to go. Brazil withdrew its candidacy for hosting COP25 in 2018, citing fiscal and budgetary constraints. Germany's state secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Jochen Flasbarth, tweeted that the German government was in contact with Poland.

The meetings usually rotate among Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Last year, the conference was held in Poland and the year before that in Bonn, Germany, on behalf of host Fiji. At the end of 2020, it is scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland. The Paris Agreement was negotiated at COP21 in Paris, France, in 2015.

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