Key requests that countries ramp up their climate action plans as soon as next year and phase out certain fossil fuels have survived the latest bruising round of negotiations at COP26, though the latter statement has been watered down.
An earlier draft text calling for nations “to accelerate the phase-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels” was contested by major oil and gas exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia and the coal-dependent India.
The second draft, published on Friday morning, calls upon parties to “[accelerate] the phase-out of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.”
Will they reach a deal? Crucial COP talks enter final stretch
Protesters have signalled they will be watching what happens to the phrase as the text evolves
Unabated means the coal use isn’t mitigated with technologies to reduce emissions, such as through carbon capture and storage (CCS), which campaigners say has not materialised as promised. Inserting the word “inefficient” allows certain subsidies such as heating for poor households to continue, but also allows room for manoeuvre for countries who want to continue subsidies for fossil fuel majors.
The statement could still be removed from or changed in the final text, which almost 200 nations are racing to agree before the clock runs down on the summit.
“Fossil fuel subsidies are paying for our own destruction,” said Tina Stege, climate envoy from the Marshall Islands, which are gradually disappearing under rising sea levels. “This text will only work if we have fossil fuel subsidies and coal included,” she added.
Another crucial section that has more or less remained in the text is a request that countries boost their climate action plans – known as NDCs – for the 2020s by the end of next year.
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Catherine Abreu decries progress on coal coming from official COP26 documents.
Laurence Tubiana, a key architect of the Paris Agreement, told Sky News the “main problem we are facing” is that countries are still “not up to the challenge for 2030”.
Scientists say the world must cut emissions by almost half by 2030 to stop the planet from warming by more than 1.5C – the more ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement. But current plans have the world on track for around 2.4C of warming.
“1.5C is non-negotiable,” said Ms Stege. “We need to keep returning to the table. We must see 1.5C aligned NDCs and long-term strategies delivered by the major emitters next year.”
Ms Stege also welcomed a new request to “at least double” cash that developing countries send to developing countries to help them adapt to the changing climate.
Greenpeace international executive director, Jennifer Morgan, said: “Today is an absolutely critical day in the fight to defend the 1.5C goal from vested interests who’ll do anything to dodge their responsibility for the climate crisis. Anything less puts the essence of [the Paris Agreement] in peril.”
She also accused some nations of a “deliberate and cynical effort” to exploit proposals for an international carbon market, allowing for “cheating, greenwash and loopholes”.
Businesses or leaders are accused of greenwash when their language or images are perceived to be deceiving people by exaggerating their green credentials, or obscuring the environmental impact of their products or policies.
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The COP president Alok Sharma MP has warned the talks must finish by 6pm tonight, but it is not unusual for COP talks to spill over into the weekend.
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