‘MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR PLANET’
Cop26 chief’s moving words as world agrees deal... but comes under fire for ‘imperfect’ text
AN EMOTIONAL Alok Sharma was congratulated last night as the Cop26 summit reached a “historic” deal to tackle climate change.
A revised Glasgow Climate Pact was agreed at the 11th hour, with the delegates agreeing to strengthen emissions-cutting targets for 2030 by the end of next year.
However, there was anger and disappointment after a last-minute change to the wording.
The summit had been due to conclude on Friday but India and China voiced opposition to language in the draft text, which talked about “phasing out” unabated coal.
This was changed to “phase down”, a “watering down” that was greeted by disappointment from many nations.
Unabated coal is coal produced without any form of carbon capture.
Agreement was reached to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. It is the first explicit mentions of fossil fuels in a UN climate agreement.
The deal aims to keep limiting global warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels “alive” or within reach, in the face of a gap between the action countries are taking and what is needed.
In the wake of the deal there were warnings the 1.5C goal was “on life support”.
Mr Sharma, the Cop26 president, admitted the “text is imperfect”. A succession of countries stressed that while the agreement was not ideal, they would not seek to renegotiate it.
The text pushes countries to “revisit and strengthen” their 2030 emissions-cutting targets by the end of 2022 as part of efforts to try to limit temperature increases to 1.5C.
It also urges richer nations to at least double their collective provision of money to help developing nations adapt to climate change from 2019 levels by 2025.
Mr Sharma tried to push the gathering towards consensus when he told delegates the “world is watching us, willing us to reach an agreement here for the sake of our planet and for present and future generations”.
He said: “This is the moment of truth for our planet and the moment of truth for our children and grandchildren.
“The world is willing us on to be bold, to be ambitious. So much rests on the decisions which we collectively take today.”
Delegates from nearly 200 countries needed to sign for the deal to go ahead. Urging agreement, an emotional Mr Sharma appeared to choke up as he apologised for the lastminute changes to the wording.
He said he was “deeply sorry” for the way the process had unfolded, adding: “I understand the deep disappointment. It’s also vital we protect this package.”
Congratulating Mr Sharma, Frans Timmermans, the spokesman for the EU delegation, described the Glasgow Pact as a “historic decision under your leadership”.
And United States climate change envoy John Kerry urged countries not to let “perfect be the enemy of good” in the negotiations.
He insisted the US was “really excited” the agreement would raise “ambition on a global basis”. He said: “If it is a good negotiation, all the parties are uncomfortable. This has been a good negotiation.”
Bhupender Yadav, India’s environment and climate minister, had raised concerns about the push to stop fossil fuels, saying: “How can anyone expect developing countries make promises about phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies when they have still to deal with their development agendas and poverty eradication?”
But Mr Timmermans pleaded for people to get behind the text.
“I wonder if we’re not at risk of stumbling in this marathon a couple of metres before reaching the finish line here,” he said.
“I want all of us here, every single one of you, just for a minute, to think about one person in your life that will still be around in 2030 and how that person will live if we do not stick to the 1.5 degrees celsius here.”
He acknowledged the concerns of developing countries but said: “[For] heaven’s sake, don’t kill this moment by asking for more texts, different texts, deleting this, deleting that.”
But leading environmental campaigners were left unimpressed.
Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan said: “They changed a word but they can’t change the signal coming out of this Cop, that the era of coal is ending.”
And Greta Thunberg warned her followers they should “beware of a tsunami of greenwashing and media spin to somehow frame the outcome as ‘good’, ‘hopeful’ or ‘a step in the right direction’”.