COP26: New global climate deal reached despite coal compromise

Europe, News November 14, 2021 , by IRIA No Comments

COP26 ends in climate agreement despite India watering down coal resolution

World leaders from nearly 200 countries reached a new climate deal to speed up action on tackling climate change as the two-week COP26 summit concluded in Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday.

The Glasgow Climate Pact signatories pledged to continue working to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the target set at the Paris climate summit in 2015.

However, the pact did not go far enough to tackle catastrophic global warming following a last-minute proposed change by India.

Coal compromise

The last-minute intervention by India watered down the climate language on “phasing out” coal to merely “phasing down”. Several countries said they were deeply disappointed by the change in language but had no choice but to go along with it. India’s environment and climate minister, Bhupender Yadav, said the revision reflected the “national circumstances of emerging economies”.

US climate envoy John Kerry said governments had no choice but to accept India’s coal language change. “If we hadn’t done that we wouldn’t have had an agreement,” he said.

Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, said the 1.5C target leaves Glasgow “battered, bruised, but alive”.

UN chief Antonio Guterres called the global deal “reflect the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today,” he added. “They take important steps, but unfortunately the collective political will was not enough to overcome some deep contradictions.”