Glasgow Talks

UN climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, ended on Saturday with a deal that targeted fossil fuels for the first time. But India, backed by China and other coaldependent developing nations, rejected a clause calling for a “phase out” of coal-fired power, and the text was changed to “phase down”. 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. After the debacle at COP25 in Madrid in 2019, questions were asked about the relevance of the UNFCCC’s processes. The UN climate agency has managed to redeem itself somewhat at COP26. The conference, which concluded in Glasgow on November 13, resolved the long-pending issue of carbon markets that had held back the finalisation of rules for the implementation of the Paris Pact. In a major concession to India, China and Brazil, the Glasgow Accord allows countries to carry forward the Kyoto Protocol’s carbon credits earned after 2012. A two-year programme to define a global goal for adaptation to climate change carries the potential to remove another sticking point of the Paris Accord – framing uniform criteria for adaptation initiatives is difficult because their benefits are local, unlike global warming mitigation
efforts that can bring universal benefits. But the deal has precious little for vulnerable nations desperate for funding to deal with climate vagaries. Developed countries have defaulted on the 2020 deadline, set in 2009, to deliver $100 billion annually in climate finance. The Glasgow Declaration’s mild admonition that only “urges developed country parties to urgently and significantly scale up their provision of climate finance” left the vulnerable countries and emerging economies disappointed. COP26 stretched into extra time because India, China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba rejected a clause asking for “phasing-out unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”. The final declaration carries an amendment moved by India, and backed by China, in which the phrase, “phasing-out” is replaced
by “phased-down”. This “dilution” disappointed several countries, but they gave their assent, nonetheless, signaling Delhi’s growing heft in climate diplomacy. At Glasgow, India upscaled its renewable energy ambitions, pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 2030 and announced that it will be a netzero emissions economy by 2070.

Also, Delhi took a step towards building bridges with climate-vulnerable countries by launching ‘The One Sun, One World Grid’ – the first international network of solar power grids. Delhi would, however, do well to read the last-minute change in the Glasgow Declaration’s language as a reprieve.