Polish official hands over presidency of climate summit to Chile

Polish Minister of Climate and COP24 President Michał Kurtyka handed over to Chile in Madrid on Monday the presidency of the UN climate summit, the position he held since the previous conference in Katowice, southern Poland, last December.

The post of COP25 president will now be held by Chilean Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt.

"We managed to jump over the bar of expectations and introduce the necessary Katowice Package," Kurtyka said, while inaugurating the COP25 UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid.

"We created a textbook of steps necessary to effectively implement the Paris Agreement. This was our common success, which would have been impossible without your wisdom, skills and personal commitment," Kurtyka said.

The outgoing COP24 president underlined that much had changed over the last year, and said that, "we have come to Madrid to fill the last empty pages of the Katowice Package."

He also thanked the Spanish organisers of the COP25 summit and expressed hope that the Chilean presidency would find a solution to all problems, and "that it would manage to do this by 6:00 p.m. on December 13."

The conference, in which delegates from almost 200 countries will take part, is designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. It will be held on December 2-13.