Coal: China and India aren’t really the villains of COP26

Coal: China and India aren’t really the villains of COP26

(MENAFN- Asia Times) The Glasgow Climate Pact urges countries to"accelerate efforts towards phasing down", rather than"phasing out", coal power that isn't mitigated by carbon capture and storage. This subtle change to the text surfaced at the end of COP26, the latest UN climate change conference, at the insistence of India and China. So are these two countries to blame for the summit's disappointing outcome, as many are suggesting ? Largely formed from plants and animals buried in the Carboniferous period 359 to 299 million years ago, fossil fuels like coal and natural gas are found on every continent. But their global distribution is not even – India and China have significant coal resources , but comparatively little natural gas . Providing 37% of the world's energy, coal is the single largest source of electricity generation globally. It is projected to remain the leading energy source into the 2030s , particularly because its use in India in China is still growing . The UK has reduced its carbon emissions by switching from coal power to natural gas. Coal generated 41% of the country's electricity in 2012, while natural gas made up 25%. A decade later, coal is almost non-existent in the