China and India will need to explain to developing nations why they pushed to water down language on efforts to phase out coal at the COP26 conference, the event's president Alok Sharma said on Sunday. 200 nations had accepted a climate compromise on Sunday, which came under criticisms for "watering down crucial language about coal" after contentions pushed by countries like India and China. What irked a lot of climate change watchers was the last-minute decision to amend provisions that called for "phasing out" coal and certain fossil fuels, in favour of "phasing them down", a crucial difference pushed for mainly by countries like India.
The deal calls for an eventual end of some coal power and of fossil fuel subsidies. It also includes enough financial incentives to almost satisfy poorer nations that anticipate harms from climate change out of proportion with their roles in causing it. Most importantly, negotiators said, it preserves, albeit barely, the overarching goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees celsius since pre-industrial times. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees celsius.
Ahead of the talks in Glasgow, Scotland, the United Nations had set three criteria for success, and none of them was achieved. The UN's criteria included pledges to cut carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2030, $100 billion in financial aid from rich nations to poor, and ensuring that half of that money went to helping the developing world adapt to the worst effects of climate change. The draft agreement says big carbon polluting nations have to come back and submit stronger emission cutting pledges by the end of 2022.