\u201cIf it\u2019s a good negotiation, all the parties are uncomfortable,\u201d U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said in the final meeting to approve the Glasgow Climate Pact. \u201cAnd this has been, I think, a good negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com\/reuters\/BLDXZWHP4BIJHGMLFUS4AWMGVU.jpg\")
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The two-week conference in Scotland delivered a major win in resolving the rules around carbon markets, but it did little to assuage vulnerable countries\u2019 concerns about long-promised climate financing from rich nations.<\/p>\n
The British COP26 president, Alok Sharma, was visibly emotional before banging down his gavel to signal there were no vetoes to the pact, after the talks had extended overtime \u2013 and overnight \u2013 into Saturday.<\/p>\n
There was last-minute drama as India, backed by China and other coal-dependent developing nations, rejected a clause calling for the \u201cphase out\u201d of coal-fired power. After a huddle between the envoys from China, India, the United States and European Union, the clause was hurriedly amended to ask countries to \u201cphase down\u201d their coal use.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s environment and climate minister, Bhupender Yadav, said the revision reflected the \u201cnational circumstances of emerging economies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are becoming the voice of the developing countries,\u201d he told Reuters, saying the pact had \u201csingled out\u201d coal but kept quiet about oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made our effort to make a consensus that is reasonable for developing countries and reasonable for climate justice,\u201d he said, alluding to the fact that rich nations historically have emitted the\u00a0largest share of greenhouse gases<\/a>.<\/p>\n The single-word change was met with dismay by both rich countries in Europe and small island nations along with others still developing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe we have been side-lined in a non-transparent and non-inclusive process,\u201d Mexico\u2019s envoy Camila Isabel Zepeda Lizama said. \u201cWe all have remaining concerns but were told we could not reopen the text \u2026 while others can still ask to water down their promises.\u201d<\/p>\n But Mexico and others said they would let the revised agreement stand.<\/p>\n \u201cThe approved texts are a compromise,\u201d said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. \u201cThey reflect the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today.\u201d<\/p>\n CARBON MARKET BREAKTHROUGH<\/strong><\/p>\n Reaching a deal was always a matter of balancing the demands of climate-vulnerable nations, big industrial powers, and those like India and China depending on fossil fuels to lift their economies and populations out of poverty.<\/p>\n Sharma\u2019s voice broke with emotion in response to vulnerable nations\u2019 expressing anger over the last-minute changes.<\/p>\n \u201cI apologise for the way this process has unfolded,\u201d he told the assembly. \u201cI am deeply sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n The overarching aim he had set for the conference was one that climate campaigners and vulnerable countries said was too modest \u2013 to \u201ckeep alive\u201d the 2015 Paris Agreement\u2019s target to keep global temperatures from\u00a0rising beyond 1.5C<\/a>\u00a0(2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Scientists say warming beyond this point could unleash irreversible and uncontrollable climate impacts.<\/p>\n In asking nations to set tougher targets by next year for cutting climate-warming emissions, the agreement effectively acknowledged that commitments were still inadequate. National pledges currently have the world on track for\u00a0about 2.4C<\/a>\u00a0of warming.<\/p>\n The talks also led to a breakthrough in\u00a0resolving rules<\/a>\u00a0for covering government-led markets for carbon offsets. Companies and countries with vast forest cover had pushed hard for a deal, in hopes also of legitimising the fast-growing global voluntary offset markets.<\/p>\n The deal allows countries to partially meet their climate targets by buying offset credits representing emission cuts by others, potentially unlocks trillions of dollars for protecting forests, expanding renewable energy and other projects to combat climate change.<\/p>\n \u2018THE ERA OF COAL IS ENDING\u2019<\/p>\n Jennifer Morgan, executive director of the campaign group Greenpeace, saw the glass as half-full.<\/p>\n \u201cThey changed a word but they can\u2019t change the signal coming out of this COP, that the era of coal is ending,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re a coal company executive, this COP saw a bad outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Developing countries argue rich nations, whose historical emissions are largely responsible for warming the planet, must finance their efforts both to transition away from fossil fuels and to adapt to increasingly severe climate impacts.<\/p>\n The deal offered a promise to double adaptation finance by 2025 from 2019, but again no guarantees. A U.N. committee will report next year on progress towards delivering the $100 billion per year in promised climate funding, after rich nations failed to deliver on a 2020 deadline for the funds. Finance will then be discussed again 2024 and 2026.\u00a0read more<\/a><\/p>\n But the deal left many vulnerable nations despondent in offering no funding for climate-linked\u00a0losses and damages<\/a>, a promise made in the\u00a0original pact<\/a>\u00a0called the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992.<\/p>\n Rich nations once again resisted acknowledging financial liability for their years of emissions that drove climate change as they rose to economic prosperity.<\/p>\n While Glasgow agreement laid out a pathway for addressing the issue by establishing a new secretariat dedicated to the issue, vulnerable countries said that represented a bare minimum of acceptability.<\/p>\n \u201cThis package is not perfect. The coal change and a weak outcome on loss and damage are blows,\u201d said Tina Stee, climate envoy from the Marshall Islands. Still, \u201celements of the Glasgow Package are a lifeline for my country. We must not discount the crucial wins covered in this package.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"COP26](\"https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com\/reuters\/J26YZXF2SJKB7NIJDX5LXPHPJE.jpg\")
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