COP Scorecard: Here’s What You Need to Know
These are the most important outcomes from the Glasgow talks
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 13: U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry speaks with Special Climate Envoy of China Xie Zhenhua.
Photographer: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images EuropeCOP26 took fourteen days and some long nights of negotiations. It produced breakthrough pledges, a set of rules on carbon trading and some big aspirations that will have to be scrutinized against real action in the years ahead. Here’s what you need to know.
For the first time, a COP text takes on coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, and goes further than the G-20 had done before. It was watered down at the last-minute to a pledge to “phase down” rather than “phase out” unabated coal power, but the inclusion is still a significant signal. India and China’s resistance is a reminder it will take a long time to wean the world off coal.