COP26 president criticises India, China over coal use move
COP26 climate summit’s president Alok Sharma asked India and
China to “explain themselves to poor nations” after they watered down the
clause on ending the usage of coal.
Sharma said he was “deeply frustrated” after India, backed
by China and other coal-dependent developing nations, rejected a clause calling
for a “phase out” of coal-fired power, and changed the text to “phase down
In an interview to the Guardian, Sharma later said that he
had no choice but to accept the compromise, because “it was my view that
otherwise we might end up with no deal at all. We would have lost two years of
really hard work, and would have ended up with nothing to show for it for
developing countries.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was also present
with Sharma at a news conference at Downing Street, said, “Whether the language
was ‘phase down’ or ‘phase out’ doesn't seem to me as a speaker of English to
make that much difference.”
“The direction of travel is pretty much the same,” he added.
Johnson said COP26 had delivered a mandate to cut the use of
coal-powered generation that was backed up by real action from individual
counties.
"When you add all that together, it is beyond question
that Glasgow has sounded the death knell for coal power," he said at the
press conference.
But he said his delight at the progress achieved was tinged
by disappointment that the deal did not go further.
"Sadly, that's the nature of diplomacy," he said.
Source Wionews
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