AS the curtain comes down on the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow, Scotland, parties have agreed on the use of coal following re-wording of the text of commitment from previously popular “phase out” to “phase down”.
The issue of a complete ban on coal has been highly contested among parties in recent years.
All 197 countries represented at the global climate conference agreed to the deal which resolves to strengthen emission targets, “phase down” coal use and “phase out” inefficient fossil fuels.
In as much as this year’s COP26 delivered a major victory in terms of resolving the carbon markets rules, enough needed to be done in order to ease pressure on vulnerable countries.
Such vulnerable countries are in dire need of climate financing from their rich counterparts.
India however, at the death watered down the language from “phasing out” coal to just “phasing down.”
The country’s Environment and Climate Minister, Bhupender Yadav was quoted as saying that this reflected the “national circumstances if emerging economies.”
