Countries reached a deal aimed at staving off dangerous climate change at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
The Glasgow Climate Pact is the first ever climate deal to explicitly plan to reduce coal, the worst fossil fuel for greenhouse gases.
The pact also presses for more urgent emission cuts and promises more money for developing countries – to help them adapt to climate impacts.
However, the pledges don’t go far enough to limit temperature rise to 1.5C.
A commitment to phase out coal that was included in earlier negotiation drafts led to a dramatic finish after India led opposition to it.
India’s climate minister Bhupender Yadav asked how developing countries could promise to phase out coal and fossil fuel subsidies when they “have still to deal with their development agendas and poverty eradication”.
In the end, countries agreed to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal, amid expressions of disappointment by some. COP26 President Alok Sharma said he was “deeply sorry” for how events had unfolded.
Alok Sharma fought back tears as he told delegates that it was vital to protect the agreement as a whole.
As part of the agreement, countries will meet next year to pledge further major carbon cuts with the aim of reaching the 1.5C goal. Current pledges, if fulfilled, will only limit global warming to about 2.4C.
If global temperatures rise by more than 1.5C, scientists say the Earth is likely to experience severe effects such as millions more people being exposed to extreme heat.
Despite the weakening of language around coal, some observers will still see the deal as a victory, underlining that it is the first time coal is explicitly mentioned in UN documents of this type.
Coal is responsible for about 40% of annual CO2 emissions, making it central in efforts to keep within the 1.5C target. To meet this goal, agreed in Paris in 2015, global emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and to nearly zero by mid-century.
Finance was a contentious issue during the conference. A pledge by developed nations to provide $100 billion per year to emerging economies, made in 2009, was supposed to have been delivered by 2020. However, the date was missed.
It was designed to help developing nations adapt to climate effects and make the transition to clean energy. In an effort to mollify delegates, Alok Sharma said around $500 billion would be mobilized by 2025.
Main achievements of the Glasgow Climate Pact:
Re-visiting emissions-cutting plans next year to try to keep 1.5C target reachable
The first ever inclusion of a commitment to limit coal use
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has told young protesters that politicians attending COP26 are “pretending to take our future seriously”.
The arrival of world leaders in Glasgow for the COP26 summit triggered a series of demos across the city.
The gathering attended by Greta Thunberg was one of dozens taking place.
She told fellow activists from “Fridays for Future” that change would not come from politicians at the summit but from individuals showing leadership.
The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was sailing up the Clyde, with plans to dock near the conference venue.
Demonstrations by French and Tamil groups were being held south of the River Clyde.
UK’s PM Boris Johnson welcomed world leaders to Glasgow on the first full day of the COP26 summit.
Leaders from 120 countries arrived for the talks, including US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.
About 25,000 delegates will be attending the two-week climate conference in the UN-controlled blue zone on the north side of the River Clyde.
Many different groups from across the globe will be using the opportunity to make their voices heard as the attention of the world is on Glasgow during the pandemic-delayed summit.
Greta Thunberg was one of the environmental activists speaking at the “Fridays for Future” meeting of young activists at Festival Park, near the COP26 campus.
The activist said: “This COP26 is so far just like the previous COPs and that has led us nowhere. They have led us nowhere.”
“Inside COP there are just politicians and people in power pretending to take our future seriously, pretending to take the present seriously of the people who are being affected already today by the climate crisis.
“Change is not going to come from inside there. That is not leadership – this is leadership.”
The Swedish teenager led cries of “climate justice” and “no more blah, blah, blah”.
“We’re sick and tired of it and we’re going to make the change whether they like it or not,” she added.
Protesters from Extinction Rebellion made this point directly at Glasgow Central Station, where a small group welcomed conference delegates arriving by train.
The group held up large eyes with signs warning the delegates that they represented the “world’s eyes on you”.
The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior traveled up the Firth of Clyde, carrying youth climate activists from Mexico, Uganda, Bangladesh and Namibia.
The Erskine Bridge was closed at short notice, stopping traffic for 90 minutes, to allow the vessel to pass.
After uncertainty over whether it would be allowed to enter the city, Greenpeace said the vessel was given permission to dock at Govan.
It eventually moored at the King George V docks at Shieldhall, downriver from the summit venue.
Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie of Police Scotland said it was outside of the exclusion zone, and the ship had not breached any COP26 restrictions.
Activists travelling on the ship, including Edwin Namakanga from Uganda, hope to send a message to world leaders.
In Royal Exchange Square, UK charity Oxfam organized a Scottish pipe band protest, with participants dressing up as 10 leaders from the world’s “highest-emitting” countries.
Angela Merkel, Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden were all caricatured in the band which Oxfam said was guaranteed to produce a “lot of hot air”.
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