New Delhi, Nov 14 (FN Bureau) India on Saturday pushed nearly 200 nations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26, to accept a deal which significantly watered down the text on the use of coal with inclusion of ‘phase down,’ instead of ‘phase out’ coal power. The final text urged the nations to accelerate efforts to “phase down” unfiltered coal and “phase out” inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. The finale, after two weeks of laboured negotiations, came after an intense process of opposition and demand for revision to the final text over the sticking point — a call to accelerate the ‘phase-out’ of unabated coal power, from plants that don’t use carbon-capture technology. India, finding support from China to change the text, offered a new version of the paragraph that used ‘phase-down’ to describe what needs to happen to coal use. This was incorporated into the final text endorsed by almost 200 nations.
The COP26 deal calls on all countries to accelerate their emission cuts by submitting new national plans by 2022, three years earlier than agreed in Paris. The agreement recognises that commitments made by the countries so far to cut emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases are not enough to prevent planetary warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures and asks the governments to strengthen those targets by the end of next year, rather than every five years, as previously required. “I think today, we can say with credibility that we’ve kept 1.5 (degrees) within reach,” said Alok Sharma, president of the COP26 summit. “But its pulse is weak, and we will only survive if we keep our promises.” The Glasgow Climate Pact has in no way succeeded in going far enough to keep the world below a 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise, opined Sunita Narain, Director General, Centre for Science and Environment. “The pact’s fundamental and fatal flaw is in the very first page, where it says that it notes the importance for some of the concept of climate justice.
We cannot erase the fact that certain countries – the US, EU-27, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Russia and now China – have consumed roughly 70 per cent of the carbon budget, the space in the atmosphere that is available to keep the world below the 1.5 degree temperature rise. “The challenge is that the world has run out of carbon budget, but some 70 per cent of the world’s people still need the right to development. As these countries grow, they will add emissions and take the world to catastrophic levels of temperature rise. It is for this reason, climate justice is not an add-on concept for some, but the pre-requisite for an effective and ambitious agreement. This lack of understanding is at the core of the problem,” said Narain. Reflecting the demand of poor and vulnerable countries, the text notes that wealthy nations failed to stump up a separate annual sum of 100 billion dollars, they promised over a decade ago and urges developed country parties to at least double their collective provision of climate finance for adaptation to developing country parties from 2019 levels by 2025. However, the text of the agreement has no reference to a specific finance facility for the loss and damage climate change has already caused in the developing world and only promises future “dialogue” on the subject. According to Somesh Kumar, Partner and National Leader – Power and Utilities, Ernst and Young India, financing has emerged as the primary challenge, especially for developing nations, to balance between economic and climate goals. “Adequate financing combined with seamless technology access can help fast racks clean transition globally. With more than 150 parties submitting updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the CoP 26 acknowledges almost 90 per cent of global emissions and over 90 per cent of global GDP being covered by mid-century net zero or carbon neutrality commitments,” said Kumar. “As had been stressed by most leaders, this decade is extremely critical for not only course correction, but also to take concrete actions that reflect long term commitments,” he added.