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Annual UN climate summits are never moments of unbridled optimism,
每年一度的聯合國氣候峰會從來不是盲目樂觀的時刻，
but this year's, held in Madrid and dubbed COP25, was particularly dispiriting. Its logo was a clock with its hands at a quarter to 12.
但今年在馬德里舉辦的COP25聯合國氣候峰會尤其令人沮喪。其標志是一個指針指向十二點差一刻的鐘。
Midnight duly passed on Friday December 13th—supposedly the summit's last day, and then again on Saturday.
12月13日周五，可能是峰會的最后一天，午夜準時過去了，然后周六又過去了。
Only on Sunday did delegates agree to weak and watered-down commitments to enact previously promised cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases.
到了周日，代表才同意在實施之前承諾的減少溫室氣體排放方面做出軟弱無力的妥協。
And they deferred until next year a decision on regulating a new international carbon market.
他們還將是否建立一個新的國際碳市場的決定推遲到了明年。
In 2015, in Paris, nearly 200 countries promised to stop global warming
2015年，在巴黎，200個國家承諾
before average temperatures rose by more than 1.5-2°C above pre-industrial levels.
在全球平均氣溫較工業化水平上升1.5-2攝氏度之前阻止全球變暖。
Most climate scientists, though, admit privately that there is little hope of this.
雖然大部分氣候科學家私下里承認，這幾乎沒有希望。
A coalition of governments including the European Union therefore came to Madrid demanding a strongly worded final text
因此，包括歐盟在內的一個政府聯盟來到馬德里，要求拿出一份措辭強硬的最終文本，
that would urge all countries to promise in 2020 to cut emissions further and faster than agreed so far. That text failed to materialise.
敦促所有國家承諾在2020年進一步、更快地削減碳排放。該文本未能成為現實。
In fact, the real effort on this front came from Brussels, where the EU's leaders, after some wrangling,
事實上，在這方面真正的努力來自布魯塞爾，在那里，歐盟領導人們經過一番爭論后
committed themselves on December 12th to reducing emissions to "net zero" by 2050.
于12月12日做出承諾，到2050年將排放量減少到“零排放”。
This means any release of greenhouse gases thereafter will be balanced by the capture of such gases already in the atmosphere by, say, extra afforestation.
這意味著，今后任何溫室氣體的排放，都將通過額外的植樹造林等措施來平衡大氣中已經存在的溫室氣體的捕獲。
The European Commission's presidency has published a comprehensive and ambitious,
歐盟委員會主席已為實現這一目標的措施，
if sometimes vague, proposal for measures that would achieve this goal.
發表了一份全面而雄心勃勃的提案，雖然內容模糊。
As part of it, an EU climate law enshrining the 2050 target will be put forward in the spring of 2020.
作為措施的一部分，歐盟將在2020年春季提出一項規定2050年目標的氣候法律。
Weak and watered-down commitments to enact cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases are nothing new.
制定削減溫室氣體排放的承諾力度不夠并不是什么新鮮事。
What COP25 is really likely to be remembered for, though, is a failure to deal with carbon markets.
COP25真正讓人銘記的可能是應對碳市場方面的失敗。
Plans for such markets go back to a scheme created by the Kyoto protocol, a treaty signed in 1992.
這類市場的計劃可以追溯到1992年簽署的《京都議定書》。
An arcane technical clause in the Paris agreement then offered a framework for linking existing national or regional markets
《巴黎協定》中的一項晦澀難懂的技術條款為連接現有國家或地區市場提供了框架
and thus creating a new global one that would be administered by the UN and offer access to countries that do not have their own.
并因此建立一個新的全球市場，由聯合國管理，并向沒有自己市場的國家提供準入。
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