More than two weeks of global climate negotiations dropped in the end to water language on the use of coal. But the resistance seen from India in the last text of the Glasgow climate pact helped hide the role played by China and even a.S. in weakened results.
Dramatic revision process with the final text opened in minutes of negotiations on Saturday, before the COP26 president Alok Sharma can drop a hammer, all about one paragraph. Sticky point: call to speed up “phase-out” from the coal power that has not taken place, from plants that do not use capture carbon technology.
In the final game, which lasted more than an hour in the plenary hall, China said it would be like a language to reduce the use of coal for closer to the agreed text in a statement along with the US earlier this week. But it was handed over to India to spell last minute changes. Instead of approving the strength of the coal “phase-out”, the Indian Minister of Environment, Bhupender Yadav, read the new version of the paragraph that uses “phase-down” to describe what needs to occur in the use of coal. The formulation made it a final text supported by almost 200 countries.
Some countries, including Switzerland and the Marshall Islands, immediately complained that other delegates had been blocked from reopening the text, while India had late adjustments. “I apologize for the way this process has been opened, and I am very sorry,” Sharma said from the stage, close to tears. “I also understand deep disappointment. But as you have recorded, it is also very important that we protect this package.”
Maneuvers highlighted one of the main tensions in the UN climate negotiations this year. China, the US and India are the three biggest pollutants, and the three are now promised to issue their emissions in the next few decades. But India and China chased the last trench intervention to soften the language on the use of coal, and A.S. Playing a role in receiving a weaker position, asking their short-term commitment to curb the use of coal.
It is M. and China who first embraced the term “phase-down” in their bilateral climate agreement, which was adopted with a large fanfare in the middle of COP26. Before the last dramatic plenary, A. Even signifies the “phase-down” acceptance that has been used in a joint statement with China, according to someone who is familiar with the position of A.S. who asks not to be named.
“You have to remove coal before you can end the coal,” John Kerry, The A.S.
Climate messenger, told a press conference after the last text was adopted.
In the previous plenary session on Saturday, a number of countries have stated opposition to different text bits. Iran is among groups that support the position of India and China in coal. When dizzy down, though, it is India which is left like a main shelter on behalf of coal. But two people who are familiar with a side discussion late in the plen hall involving Sharma said China played a major role in encouraging a softer language.
Chinese diplomats explained personally that the world’s top emites were reluctant to include more stringent formulations at the end of coal. “To shout slogans can cause an unnecessary negative impact on speed. It could be, ‘pull the seeds to help them grow,'” said Li Zheng, a member of the Chinese delegation at COP26, in an interview on Friday, using China, using China Adage. “To demand fossil fuel will only hurt ourselves.”
With the world falling in the energy crisis, India and China has turned to mining more coal. The context will make climate negotiations difficult, especially whatever restrictions on the use of the dirtiest fossil fuels. Even at M.S., where President Joe Biden tried to pass the sweeping climate package, had to bend the will of elected parliamentarians from the coal constituency.