G-20 climate agreement leaves COP26 talks needing a breakthrough

Leaders of the Group of 20 countries agreed on a climate deal that fell well short of what some nations were pushing for, leaving it to negotiators at the COP26 summit in Glasgow this week to try to achieve a breakthrough.

Leaders of the Group of 20 countries agreed on a climate deal that fell well short of what some nations were pushing for, leaving it to negotiators at the COP26 summit in Glasgow this week to try to achieve a breakthrough.

“It is easy to suggest difficult things. It is very difficult to actually execute them,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the summit’s host, told reporters in a briefing Sunday. “What the G-20 countries have done today is a step forward in a long and difficult transition. We don’t know yet what the final goalpost of this transition will be.”

The final communique after two days of intense negotiations in Rome agreed to phasing out investment in new offshore coal power plants by the end of 2021. On domestic coal, it contained only a general pledge to support those countries that commit to “phasing out investment in new unabated coal power generation capacity to do so as soon as possible.” 

The document mirrors prior pledges made in the 2015 Paris climate accord, saying nations remain committed “to hold the global average temperature increase well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”

While COP26’s U.K. hosts had aimed to “consign coal to history,” many nations remain deeply dependent on burning the fuel that represents the biggest single obstacle to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. The energy crisis has underscored the importance of secure supplies and driven up coal prices amid a shortage of natural gas. China is pressing coal producers to increase output to ease shortages. India burns more coal than Europe and the U.S combined to produce about 70 per cent of its electricity. 

COP Aims to End Coal, But the World Is Still Addicted