World News

COP26: Countries strike agreement with coal commitment | Climate News

[ad_1]

The renewed agreement on the coal text was approved after a last-minute change that sparked complaints from vulnerable nations and others.

At the UN COP26 summit in Scotland, nearly 200 countries agreed on a deal to contain the global climate crisis, but observers said it had not gone far enough to deal with the dangerous warming.

The final text of the Glasgow summit was finally approved on Saturday, after the day the talks were initially scheduled to end, and India called for a last-minute change as it called on the parties to “gradually” “coal, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The agreement is the first UN climate agreement to explicitly plan to reduce coal, but several countries, including small and low island states, were very disappointed with the irrigation of the crucial language. Others found the review disgusting and against the rules, but said they had to agree to bring in two weeks of talks in Glasgow. to close.

“There was a real ambush feeling in the air,” Nick Clark of Al Jazeera said in an interview.

COP26 President Alok Sharma said he was “deeply saddened” by how the summit ended. “Have I said that I apologize to all the delegates for the way this process has developed and I am very sorry,” he said, after breaking his voice with emotion after hearing changes from the text that expressed their anger at vulnerable nations.

“I also understand the deep disappointment, but I think as you pointed out, it’s essential to support this package.”

Activist Jean Su told Al Jazeera that the first explicit mention of fossil fuels in a climate pact was “also extraordinary and very disappointing.”

“We have been fighting for years to basically take what everyone else in the world knows that fossil fuels are the driving force behind the climate emergency and take it to global climate negotiations,” he said.

“So on the one hand, we were horribly surprised to finally get into the text this year, but what’s in the text is very weak; in fact, it doesn’t mean much. It ends up implementing a system of fossil fuels that has not been properly addressed in the negotiations, ”Suk added.

Before India could make the change, they talked nationally about the final provisions that were not far enough or fast enough, but the commitment was better than nothing and it provided progress if not success.

Negotiators say the main goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement is to keep it alive by limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times.

Delegates were also tasked with finding funding for nations most at risk of weather-related droughts, floods and rising seas.

Observers said the deal went too far in preventing dangerous warming and helping countries adapt or repair the damage from the catastrophes that are spreading around the world.

Laurence Tubiana, the architect of the Paris agreement, told AFP that “the COP has not immediately provided immediate assistance to people who are suffering.”



[ad_2]

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button