Coal news and updates

COP26’s compromise on coal is still a victory, US climate official says

A top US climate official on Thursday played down the weakening of commitments to reduce coal usage at the recent COP26 conference, stressing that the fossil fuel’s inclusion in the summit’s resulting document was a victory in itself.

Jonathan Pershing, the US administration’s deputy special climate envoy, also said that too much had been made of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s absence from the conference, in contrast with US President Joe Biden’s assertion that the no-show signalled that Beijing had “walked away” from the climate issue.

Held in Scotland, the United Nations-backed summit culminated last week in a document – the Glasgow Climate Pact – that included a commitment to “phase down” coal, a last-minute change reportedly pushed by China and India from its original wording of “phase out”.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Pershing said the edit was a case of “minor tweaking”, and said the difference was not consequential given that the original “phase out” wording itself did not come with a deadline.