End of coal? COP26 summit deal takes aim at dirtiest fossil fuel

Indonesia, Poland, Vietnam and other nations on Thursday pledged to phase out their use of coal-fired power and stop building plants, a deal the COP26 climate summit host Britain described as putting the end of the fuel 'in sight.'

Underpinned by commitments from 20 governments to stop public financing for fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of next year, Britain hopes to deliver one of its main aims for the United Nations summit of "consigning coal power to history."

But the deal to end domestic use of the most polluting fossil fuel leaves out some of the world's biggest coal-dependent nations, such as Australia, China and India.

Some climate experts said it fell "spectacularly short" of what was needed to tackle climate change by focusing only on coal, an industry that is already entering "terminal decline," and for not targetting CO2-emitting oil and gas.

"Today I think we can say that the end of coal is in sight," Britain's COP26 president, Alok Sharma, told the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow.