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COP26 climate deal includes historic reference to fossil fuels but doesn't meet urgency of the crisis [cnn.com]:

COP26 climate deal includes historic reference to fossil fuels but doesn't meet urgency of the crisis

The COP process has tried and failed for years to include an acknowledgment that the climate crisis has been caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Coal is the single biggest source of greenhouse gases [cnn.com] and phasing it out was a key priority of COP26 President Alok Sharma.

But despite that progress, the text doesn't reflect the urgency expressed by international scientists in their "code red for humanity" climate report published in August [cnn.com]. Rather, it defers more action on reducing fossil fuel emissions to next year. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported the world needs to roughly halve emissions over the next decade.

Success at Glasgow will ultimately depend on whether countries come to COP27 next year with more ambitious commitments to slash their greenhouse gas emissions.

Visibly teary after a long two weeks, and following marathon talks that went late into the night Friday, Sharma formalized the agreement with strikes of a gavel. He orally made India's requested amendment, changing the text to a phasing "down" of coal as opposed to a phasing "out."

Also at Washington Post [washingtonpost.com], www.aljazeera.com [aljazeera.com]

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