A new global climate deal has been agreed at COP26 in Glasgow on Saturday after talks overran over 24 hours, but it prompted fury after China, whose president did not attend, and India forced a last-minute change over the language about coal, where Britain’s president of the conference Alok Sharma ‘fought back tears’ as he apologized for a last-minute change.
Due to the change, basically the leaders have watered down in the wording of unabated coal – the burning of coal without climate change mitigating technology – changed from ‘phase out’ to ‘phase down’, leading to angry responses from European and vulnerable countries.
The overall deal has seen nearly 200 countries agree to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels ‘alive’ or within reach. The deal now requests countries revisit and strengthen their 2030 national climate action targets ‘as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022, taking into account different national circumstances’.
As a result, many shared their disappointment with some even deeming it as ‘weak’, while others insisted that the summit made important progress for global warming.