Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 12

As countries raced to finalise a deal after two weeks of climate talks at Glasgow that officially end on Friday, a new draft released by the COP 26 Presidency this morning made certain changes to strike a compromise following a lack of consensus on the document released on Wednesday. 

Climate activists, however, criticised “watered down commitments to end the use of coal and other fossil fuels”, saying “we don’t believe their pledges and promises”.

Officials insisted that language around fossil fuels may be “softened” but the inclusion of a commitment in a final deal will be seen as a “landmark moment”.

The final text can be expected later on Friday (UK time) or on Saturday. 

The Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) officially concluded but past records suggest that negotiations may spill over on Saturday.

A deal must be agreed at the key summit for limiting visible effects of global warming across the world 

On Friday, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav again reiterated India’s stance. “Negotiations to fight climate change at COP26 have been happening in an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect for each other’s ideas, strengths and constraints,” he said.

“Each side has put its point across the table emphatically because clear speaking is critical to positive and meaningful outcomes,” he said, reiterating that “wealthy nations that reaped the benefits of early industrialisation by burning fossil fuels and growing their economies for centuries must accommodate the concerns and needs of the economies that need to make the switch to clean and green energy”.

The world must start acting together on four issues—temperature, mitigation, finance and responsibility to fight climate change, he said.

The new draft reaffirms the Paris Agreement temperature goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.

However, instead of “urging” countries to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions (as necessitated to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022), the new draft uses the word “requests” them to do so, according to reports. 

There are other changes also. The new draft has removed the part on the need to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C by 2100. It states that it “recognises that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C requires rapid, deep and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions”.

Like-Minded Developing Countries, including India and China, had objected to a timeline for revisiting targets. The part about accelerating “phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels” too has been reworded.

Yadav said it “time the world unites to honour the commitments made under the Paris Agreement, which set a goal to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels”.

He said that India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has made it clear that it is ready to go the extra mile in combating climate change but “no nation, no matter how big or small, can save the planet alone. In a spirit of cooperation, India has asked the world to do its bit, leading by example in meeting all its environmental obligations globally and nationally”.

Prime Minister Modi, who has already committed to India reaching net zero by 2070 and higher NDCs, has demanded one trillion dollars in finance from developed countries, reminding them of their historical responsibilities.