COP26 Concludes: A Damp Squib!?

[Sukla Sen]

So, it's a damp squib!?

The most polluting fuel, coal, is given a reprieve at the instance of the third largest polluter - India, (with the second largest, China, silently nodding by its side?) and that too flouting the rules.

Of course, brazenness is the calling card of the incumbent Indian regime.

The most significant positive thing, however, is the provision for far more frequent stocktaking than ever before.

The next meet is scheduled a year hence.

That's the silver lining.

<<Almost 200 nations accepted a contentious climate compromise on November 13 (Glasgow time) aimed at keeping a key global warming target alive, but it contained a last-minute change that some high officials called a watering down of crucial language about coal.

Several countries, including small island states, said they were deeply disappointed by the change put forward by India to “phase down”, rather than “phase out” coal power, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Nation after nation had complained earlier on the final day of two weeks of U.N. climate talks in Glasgow about how the deal isn’t enough, but they said it was better than nothing and provides incremental progress, if not success.

Negotiators from Switzerland and Mexico called the coal language change against the rules because it came so late. However, they said they had no choice but to hold their noses and go along with it.

Swiss environment minister Simonetta Sommaruga said the change will make it harder to achieve the international goal to limit warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) since pre-industrial times.

“India’s last-minute change to the language to phase down but not phase out coal Is quite shocking,” Australian climate scientist Bill Hare, who tracks world emission pledges for the science-based Climate Action Tracker. “India has long been a blocker on climate action, but I have never seen it done so publicly.”

In addition to the revised coal language, the Glasgow Climate Pact includes enough financial incentives to almost satisfy poorer nations and solves a long-standing problem to pave the way for carbon trading.>>

(Excerpted from: <https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/climate-deal-struck-at-cop26-with-coal-compromise/article37482280.ece>.)

Also look up:

I/II. 'COP26 closes with ‘compromise’ deal on climate, but it’s not enough, says UN chief | | UN News' at <https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1105792>.

II. <https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1459612735294029834?t=xQz0AqRV-DjcwZv7gxFEug&s=19>.