Revised deal agreed at climate summit

The Cop26 climate talks have agreed a deal to get countries to strengthen their emissions-cutting targets for 2030 by the end of next year, and to accelerate efforts toward phasing down unabated coal and phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.

Many island states, including the representative for Fiji, criticised the last-minute proposed change to call on parties to “phase-down” rather than “phase-out” coal.

He told the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow: “What we would like to express was not just our astonishment but our immense disappointment in the manner in which this has been introduced.”

He said days before they were warned against making “last-minute” changes to the text and said “due process” had not been followed.

The Indian representative proposed altered wording to the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, changing a call on parties to “phase-out unabated coal power” to “phase-down”.

The representative for Switzerland – who also represents the Environmental Integrity Group – strongly criticised the proposed change, calling it “watered down”, but said the group would not oppose this in order to prevent leaving Glasgow without a deal.

She said: “This will not bring us closer to 1.5C but will make it more difficult to reach it.”