COP26: 'End of coal is in sight' as more than 70 nations join new pact

UN conference host Britain said 77 countries had pledged to phase out coal, dirtiest of the fossil fuels that drive global warming, as a study showed the carbon dioxide they release into the atmosphere had rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels.

“We were expecting to see some rebound,” said the study’s lead author Pierre Friedlingstein, a climate modelling researcher at the University of Exeter. “What surprised us was the intensity and rapidity of the rebound.” Alok Sharma, British president of the COP26 conference in Glasgow, said the two-week meeting was on its way to gradually ending use of the world’s most widely used fuel —for which demand is set to hit a new record this year. He said on Thursday 77 countries had signed a pledge to phase out coal-fuelled power plants — which produce more than 35 per cent of the world’s electricity —and stop building new ones.

“Today I think we can say that the end of coal is in sight,” Sharma told the conference.

Many developing countries, not least China, India and Indonesia, rely on cheap, accessible coal  and other fossil fuels to grow, despite their disadvantages to the environment and health.

India, China absent

The British government said on Wednesday it expected 190 nations and organisations to sign the non-binding pledge, in which richer countries would phase out coal power before 2040, and poorer countries before 2050.

But the list published on Thursday left out both India and China, which is home to almost half the over 2,600 coal-fired plants operating or under construction around the world.

Poorer countries are certain to demand financial help from developed nations as the price of ending their reliance on coal — and richer countries have failed to meet a promise of providing $100 billion a year in “climate finance” by 2020.

There are signs of initiatives to address the funding issue. 

On Tuesday, countries including Britain and the United States announced an $8.5 billion partnership to help South Africa phase out coal faster.

Emissions abound

In 2020, carbon dioxide emissions fell by a record 1.9 billion tonnes — a 5.4 per cent drop — as countries locked down and economies ground to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic.  

Need 10x more cash for climate adaptation: UN

Developing countries need up to 10 times more funding to protect themselves from increasingly ferocious effects of climate change, the UN said.  The UNEP report found developing countries will need to spend up to $300 billion a year, while in 2019, wealthy countries provided $79.6 billion in climate assistance.

‘Net-zero pledges may limit global warming to 1.8° C

Net zero emissions pledges and a commitment by leaders at the COP26 climate conference to cut methane, if enforced, would enable the world to limit global warming to below 2 degree Celsius, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.