Countries urged to boost emissions cuts and phase out fossil fuel subsidies in draft COP26 deal

Glasgow, November 11 - Neftegaz.RU. It also calls for faster phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels – a 1^{st f}or a UN deal – but there is likely to be strong resistance to this from some countries and it could be taken out of any final agreement.

Developing countries and campaigners have also raised concerns over the provision of finance for poorer nations to cope with the impact of climate change in the draft deal.

The draft «cover decision», the final version of which must be agreed by consensus of nearly 200 countries at the Glasgow summit, was published on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson headed back to the talks as they entered their final days.

Scientists have warned that keeping temperature rises to 1.5C, beyond which the worst impacts of climate change will be felt, requires global emissions to be cut by 45% by 2030, and to zero overall by mid-century – but countries’ plans for this decade leave the world well off track.

The draft is published after analysis warned existing plans for this decade put the world on track for 2.4C of warming – well above the goals internationally agreed in the Paris accord to curb temperature rises to «well below» 2C and try to limit them to 1.5C.

COP26 president Alok Sharma has made it clear that there is no attempt to renegotiate the Paris Agreement, but the draft document says the impact of climate change will be much lower with 1.5C of warming than 2C.
And it «resolves to pursue efforts to limit temperature rises to 1.5C» which will require more action in this decade.

The draft urges countries to «revisit and strengthen» the targets for cutting emissions by 2030 in their national plans to align them with the Paris temperature goal, which still covers both numbers, by the end of 2022.
The document also urges countries to set out long-term strategies by the end of next year to reach net-zero emissions by about mid-century.

Delegations are expected to be in contact with their leaders and capitals to discuss what their position will be – particularly in those countries whose leaders did not attend the summit, such as China and Russia.

Alongside the political decision, negotiators are also trying to hammer out agreement on technical parts of the Paris Agreement, including common timeframes for national commitments on emissions reductions and agreed ways for countries to report on their progress, to help turn pledges into action.
There are also negotiations on providing adaptation finance and to address the issue of loss and damage.