A new draft of the deal that could be agreed at the Glasgow COP26 climate talks appears to have watered down its push to curb fossil fuels.
The first draft of the “cover decision” for the overarching agreement at the summit had called for countries “to accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels”.
In a new draft produced this morning (Friday November 12), the wording has changed to a call for countries to accelerate the shift to clean energy systems, “including by rapidly scaling up clean power generation and accelerating the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels”.
The inclusion of an explicit reference to fossil fuels was a first for a UN decision document of this type, but was still expected to get fierce pushback from some countries – and it still may not survive to the final text.
Talks went on through the night and look set to overrun from their finish time of Friday evening as negotiators...