India bids to water down Cop26 coal resolution at last minute live updates

The delegate from Antigua and Barbuda, speaking on behalf of many developing nations, demands their “grievance” is registered over the failure to establish a loss and damage facility - a formal mechanism for the delivery of funds to nations hit by climate impacts. She said the group had considered asking for changes to the text, but will not so as to reach agreement. Alok Sharma tells her the grievance will be recorded.

Delegates gave a Alok Sharma a round of applause after his emotional apology. “I understand the deep disappointment but it’s vital that we protect this package,” he says calling for the revised text (with India’s change of wording on coal) to be agreed.

Marshall Islands and Fiji Islands are both raising their astonishment and disappointment at the fact that, despite having been told that they could not reopen the deal, it has now, at this very late moment, been reopened and changed. The representative for Antigua and Barbuda seconds that point. All will, however, accept the text.

Many countries are really angry about the last-minute watering down of the “phase out” to “phase down” of coal by India.

Liechtenstein says they are “deeply disappointed”, and says it is not ambitious or in line with 1.5C. “But for the greater good we must swallow this bitter pill.”

Mexico says: “We have been sidelined by a non-inclusive and non-transparent process.”

The Marshall Islands are “profoundly disappointed” and Fiji “immensely disappointed.

An emotional Alok Sharma apologises for the way the process has unfolded: “I am deeply sorry.”

Switzerland has registered its profound disappointment about the decision to “water down” the language around fossil fuels and coal. “We don’t want to phase down coal, we want to phase out coal”. But they will still accept the text.

Frans Timmermans says that it is disappointing to water down the language but this should not stop the text. The EU will work within the EU and with all partners to phase out coal. The partnership with South Africa should be a model.

India has just asked to change the final text of the agreement to say, ‘phase down’ rather than ‘phase out’ unabated coal power.

And then to ‘phase out’ inefficient fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support to the poorest and most vulnerable in line with national contributions and recognising the need for support for a just transition.

Alok Sharma thanks the conference for agreeing “something meaningful for our people and our planet’ and that keeps 1.5C alive.

Alok Sharma has just started the final session of Cop26 talks in Glasgow

Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Rachel Kennerley, has said:

The road to 1.5C just got harder when these talks should have cleared the way to making it a whole lot easier. The Glasgow get-out clause means that leaders failed to phase out fossil fuels and the richest countries won’t pay historic climate debt. With the Cop moment over, countries should break away from the pack in their race for meaningful climate action and let history judge the laggards.

The UK, as a country with huge historical responsibility for emissions, can end support for a mega-gas project in Mozambique, pull the plug on the Cambo oil field, stop the new coal mine in Cumbria and drilling for oil in Surrey. After all the Prime Minister talked a big game at the beginning of the fortnight.

Alok Sharma has just asked delegates to take their seats and says the final session will start shortly. As a final agreement appears near, there is praise from some commentators:

James Murray (@James_BG)

I understand the impulse to condemn the proposed COP26 agreement as inadequate given the scale of the crisis, but it really is a lot better than its critics are claiming.

November 13, 2021 roger harrabin (@RHarrabin)

#COP26 awaiting final plenary. Looks likely a package will be agreed, but there's been a row with India. I must say there's widely held view that the UK has done very well at this COP. Especially with the ludicrously named #GlasgowBreakthroughs

November 13, 2021

But the lack of ‘loss and damage facility’ in the final agreement has been criticised. “Loss and damage” is the phrase for the destruction already being wreaked by the climate crisis on lives, livelihoods and infrastructure.

Global Justice Now (@GlobalJusticeUK)

‘Loss and damage’ is the reparations countries hardest hit by (and least responsible for) climate change are demanding from the countries that caused it. The #CoP26 deal acknowledges the concept but stops there. 2/ https://t.co/lotrbn5jCg

November 13, 2021

And this from Oxfam International executive director Gabriela Bucher:

Clearly some world leaders think they aren’t living on the same planet as the rest of us. It seems no amount of fires, rising sea levels or droughts will bring them to their senses to stop increasing emissions at the expense of humanity.

The request to strengthen 2030 reduction targets by next year is an important step. The work starts now. Big emitters, especially rich countries, must heed the call and align their targets to give us the best possible chance of keeping 1.5 degrees within reach. Despite years of talks, emissions continue to rise, and we are dangerously close to losing this race against time.

Developing countries, representing over 6 billion people, put forward a loss and damage finance facility to build back in the aftermath of extreme weather events linked to climate change. Not only did rich countries block this, all they would agree to is limited funding for technical assistance and a ‘dialogue’. This derisory outcome is tone deaf to the suffering of millions of people both now and in the future.

For the first time, a goal for adaptation finance was agreed. The commitment to double is below what developing countries asked for and need, but if realised it will increase support to developing countries by billions.

It’s painful that diplomatic efforts have once more failed to meet the scale of this crisis. But we should draw strength from the growing movement of people around the world challenging and holding our governments to account for everything we hold dear. A better world is possible. With creativity, with bravery, we can and must hold onto that belief.

Reaction to what appears to be the final text now coming in.

Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan said:

It’s meek, it’s weak and the 1.5C goal is only just alive, but a signal has been sent that the era of coal is ending. And that matters. While the deal recognises the need for deep emissions cuts this decade, those commitments have been punted to next year.

Glasgow was meant to deliver on firmly closing the gap to 1.5C and that didn’t happen, but in 2022 nations will now have to come back with stronger targets.

Cop26 saw progress on adaptation, with the developed countries finally beginning to respond to the calls of developing countries for funding and resources to cope with rising temperatures. There was a recognition that vulnerable countries are suffering real loss and damage from the climate crisis now, but what was promised was nothing close to what’s needed on the ground. This issue must be at the top of the agenda for developed countries as the Cop goes to Egypt next year.

The line on phasing out unabated coal and fossil fuel subsidies is weak and compromised but its very existence is nevertheless a breakthrough, and the focus on a just transition is essential. The call for emissions reductions of 45% by the end of this decade is in line with what we need to do to stay under 1.5C and brings the science firmly into this deal. But it needs to be implemented.

The offsets scam got a boost in Glasgow with the creation of new loopholes that are too big to tolerate, endangering nature, Indigenous Peoples and the 1.5C goal itself. The UN Secretary General announced that a group of experts will bring vital scrutiny to offset markets, but much work still needs to be done to stop the greenwashing, cheating and loopholes giving big emitters and corporations a pass.

Meanwhile, on the topic of fossil fuels, in London today police have been arresting Extinction Rebellion protesters blocking the lord mayor’s show.

Demonstrators say Cop26 talks have failed and called on City banks to stop funding fossil fuel projects.

Footage shared on social media showed officers dragging demonstrators out of the road after they disrupted the procession.

Miranda Duncombe, a mother and member of the XR Families group, told PA Media:

Cop has failed to deliver the transformative changes needed to keep us at 1.5C of warming, a complete betrayal of our children. If the City of London was a country, it would be the ninth largest emitter in the world. The City’s banks and asset managers provide loans and investments for the projects and companies that are killing us.

It seems the final agreement will be known as the ‘Glasgow Climate Pact’... It’s 10 pages in total if you fancy reading it.

The wording on fossil fuels (I’ve added the bold formatting) is as follows:

‘Calls upon Parties to accelerate the development, deployment and dissemination of technologies, and the adoption of policies, to transition towards low-emission energy systems, including by rapidly scaling up the deployment of clean power generation and energy efficiency measures, including accelerating efforts towards the phase-out of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, recognizing the need for support towards a just transition.’

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