Page 25 - REM Annual Review 2021

REM DECEMBER REM

Coal emerges down, but

not out, from Glasgow

GLOBAL THE COP26 conference finished 26 hours late the first day of the conference in Glasgow, Indian
on November 13, with a last-minute interven- Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 2070
tion by India watering down the final agree- as its target date for net zero, and the COP26
ment’s commitment on coal. agreement is the first time it has signed any
The Indian delegate, Environment Minister agreement about moving away from the fuel.
Bhupender Yadav, in the final hours objected to Crucially, India is the leading developing
the agreement’s commitment to “phasing out” nation to argue that it needs coal to meet ris-
unabated coal-fired generation, instead inserting ing power demand and to accelerate economic
the weaker “phasing down,” into the document. growth.
The coal article also does not set any time lim- “India setting a net-zero target and agreeing
its for an end to call-fired generation. to phase down of coal is surely a step forward
India’s action, supported by China, was met from where it was in terms of national policies
with widespread disappointment by a number and commitments before arriving at COP this
of country’s delegates, especially from develop- year,” said Sunil Dahiya, an analyst at the Centre
ing and island nations, but the agreement was for Research on Energy and Clean Air in India.
adopted unanimously, as required, at 8 pm on Dahiya said India’s first step should be to set a
the evening of Saturday 13. target date for peak coal.
Critics claim the deal does not go far enough “If India formulates a detailed plan for coal
and will prove unable to limit global warming to phase-down and aggressive renewable energy
1.5C by the end of the century. deployment, they will be on track to diminishing
Conference chairman Alok Sharma spoke coal capacity and consumption,” he said.
strongly against the intervention by China and Nicholas Stern, a UK climate economist, was
India, while also welcoming the entry of coal into also hopeful about the wider success of the con-
a COP agreement for the first time. ference and the consensus on 1.5C and moving
India and China will “have to explain them- away from coal.
selves to poor nations,” he said. “The last-minute watering down of this state-
“We are on the way to consigning coal to ment is unfortunate but is unlikely to slow down
history. This is an agreement we can build on. a strong momentum past coal, a dirty fuel of an
But in the case of China and India, they will have earlier era, he said.”
to explain to climate-vulnerable countries why
they did what they did,” he said, the Guardian Political lifeline
reported. Green think-tank E3G said the deal “offers a
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was bull- political lifeline for accelerating action to keep
ish, however, saying the deal signed in Scotland [the] temperature rise below 1.5C and respond
“sounded the death knell for coal power.” to rising climate impacts.”
China’s support for India came after the The think-tank highlighted that while the
phrase “phasing down of coal,” was included agreement covered a wide range of issues, coal
in the US and China’s bilateral Declaration on was the key political issue.
November 10. Beijing said in this agreement “The political fireworks over the coal and fos-
with the US that it would phase down coal sil fuel language on the floor of the plenary show
consumption. the vital role of coal in climate action.,” E3G said.
And Yadav had said earlier in the day on On the other hand, E3G said that the pro-
November 13, saying he disagreed with the lan- gress made on adaptation and loss and damage
guage on fossil fuel subsidies and that the draft was not enough for developing countries. But
lacked balance. it failed to offer dedicated finance for loss and
India may have taken last-minute action to damage, and vulnerable countries have agreed
change the wording of the deal, but the country to compromise on the understanding that more
itself is making progress to deal with coal. On help will be coming soon, including on loss &

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