Glasgow climate summit deal leaves many unhappy

Glasgow climate summit deal leaves many unhappy

The Conference of Parties (CoP26) in Glasgow, the UN Climate Summit, nearly ended on a sour note when India backed by China and other developing economies, changed the final statement about coal to “phasing down” instead of “phasing out.” There were murmurs of dissent but conference chairman Alok Sharma brought the gavel down to signal the statement was adopted by the 200 countries. Coal and other fossil fuels were the problem. India, China, and others, including Australia, which exports high quality coal, were not willing to give up on it. United States climate envoy John Kerry said, “If it’s a good negotiation, all the parties are uncomfortable. And this has been, I think, a good negotiation.” But the climate activists were disappointed. Greta Thunberg, the teen heroine of climate activism, dismissed the Glasgow conference as “Blah, blah, blah!” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “The approved texts are a compromise. They reflect the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today.” It has been urged that the big deal that could not be clinched in Glasgow would have to be done in CoP27 in Sharm-al-Sheikh in Egypt in 2022 and in CoP28 in