How the conflict over coal sank the Glasgow Climate Pact by Reuters

Author: Valerie Volcovici

GLASGOW (Reuters) – It was a near-diplomatic catastrophe.

Alok Sharma, president of the UN Climate Conference in Scotland, convened a final meeting of representatives from nearly 200 countries to award the Glasgow Climate Pact, an agreement to ensure the world can avoid the worst effects of global warming. .

It was a moment born of the arduous weeks of negotiation and the arduous preparations of the months. Representatives were taking pictures in the COP26 plenary hall to express the historic moment.

But as the envoys were ready to take their seats on Saturday night’s deal, he threatened to prevent an unresolved dispute over coal, and most people in the hall had no idea.

China, India and other developing nations rich in coal reserves threatened to frustrate the agreement on a language that required governments to “phase out” the use of coal, a demand that is unfair and detrimental to hope for economic growth.

A special U.S. climate envoy was working in the John Kerry room and took the wind of the issue while Xie Zhenhua was chatting with the Chinese. A few days earlier the two men had raised morale at the summit by presenting a surprise joint statement that Beijing had promised to increase its intention to reduce emissions.

“You have to phase out coal for the next 20 years, you just signed an agreement with us,” Kerry told Xieri while they were together in the plenary room.

Xie, through his translator, replied, “We said phase down.”

Moments later, while delegations from other countries were waiting for the plenary to open, Kerry, Xie and members of the European Union and India left the room to meet in private. They left the meeting 30 minutes later.

When Xie returned, he told a Reuters reporter “we have a deal” and gave him a thumbs up.

That deal awkwardly entered the room.

When Sharma finally opened the meeting and began the process of approving the deal, China and India intervened. It was India that presented the last-minute proposal: Environment “removal of the coal” would become “down”, said Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.

Sharma, standing on the podium, seemed to be crying. He apologized in plenary, and then asked if the proposal was acceptable.

Despite the fading criticism of nations from Switzerland to Mexico, who were concerned that a “step-down” would open the door to endless use of coal, no one was willing to leave Glasgow without an agreement. And so it went.

They let the dissatisfied messengers speak. Sharmak then asked the plenary to approve the approval of the agreement, and without formally putting any representatives in opposition, he hit the mallet to indicate that it had been passed.

Asked about being moved on stage, Sharma told reporters, “I’ve slept for about six hours in the last three days. But you know, look, it’s emotional, collectively, as a group, in the sense we’ve achieved. What I suspect has been questioned by a lot of people.”

In an agreement that was already full of commitment, this was just another one.

For Kerry, it was he who helped with the mediation, who unified the Glasgow Climate Pact. “If we didn’t do that we wouldn’t have an agreement,” he told reporters.