COP26 outcome hinged on handful of key issues

COP26 outcome hinged on handful of key issues

GLASGOW: Fourteen days of gritty negotiations by 20,000 diplomats from nearly 200 countries-and the hopes of salvaging a deal at COP26 — boiled down to cash, coal, compensation and the willingness to speed up the drawdown of fossil fuels. Here’s a breakdown of the main sticking points that got unpicked for a deal to get hammered through.

Calling out ‘Fossil fuels’

The Paris Agreement that enjoined the world’s nations to reduce planet-warming greenhouse emissions does not contain the words “coal”, “oil”, “natural gas” or “fossil fuels”. This may seem odd, given that global warming is overwhelmingly caused by burning hydrocarbons, but it helps explain why the first-ever mention of fossil fuels in a document flowing from the 2015 treaty has been described as “historic” and “precedent-setting”. An initial draft of what would become the final text called on “parties to accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuel”.

But under pressure from India, China, South Africa and Saudi Arabia, that clarion call got progressively watered down to: “accelerate efforts towards phase-out of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.” “Unabated” refers to emissions from coal-fired power plants that are not syphoned off to prevent them from entering the atmosphere. And