Consensus over COP26 climate deal remains elusive India says

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India's environment and climate minister, Bhupender Yadav, took aim at the latest draft deal at the United Nations climate summit on Saturday, saying he disagreed with the language on fossil fuel subsidies and that the text lacked balance.

In one of the strongest criticisms of the third COP26 draft deal of the talks in Glasgow, Yadav said developing nations had the right to use the remainder of the so-called global "carbon budget," or the amount of carbon dioxide the world can release before warming crosses the 1.5 C threshold.

"Mr. President thank you for your efforts to build consensus," he told Britain's COP26 president, Alok Sharma, at a so-called stocktaking plenary. "I am afraid, however, the consensus remains elusive.

"In such a situation, how can anyone expect that developing countries can make promises about phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies when developing counties have still to deal with their development agendas and poverty eradication?"

'Wasteful consumption' to blame

The climate crisis is "caused by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption patterns" in rich countries, Yadav told the session, a day after Shama extended the summit past Friday's deadline.

Yadav said the text is still not balanced between mitigation and finance â€" sections that spell out what actions countries can take to cut greenhouse gas emissions and how to financially support developing countries as they adapt.

The issue of subsidies for oil, gas and coal has become a major sticking point at the summit.

Earlier, a new draft of the agreement negotiated over the past two weeks called upon countries to accelerate "efforts towards the phase-out of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."

But in a new addition, the text says nations will recognize "the need for support towards a just transition" â€" a reference to calls from those working in the fossil fuel industry for financial support as they wind down jobs and businesses.

Yadav criticized what he described as a "lack of balance" in the agreement, an argument developing countries have made before when pushing for more money to better adapt their countries to deal with the effects of climate change.

Faster pace for next round of pledges

The newest draft of what many hope will be the final Glasgow agreement also retained a significant demand for nations to set tougher climate pledges next year, rather than doing so every five years as they are currently required.

The draft deals also urges rich countries to double climate adaptation finance by 2025 from 2019 levels.

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As president of the climate summit, Sharma said earlier on Saturday that phasing out coal was still part of the agreement text as negotiators pored over fresh proposals aimed boosting the world's efforts to tackle global warming.

"I've always said we want this to be a high ambition COP. That's what I heard yesterday in the plenary, and I hope colleagues will rise to the occasion," said Sharma as he arrived at the conference venue.

Although India's chief delegate argued against phasing out coal-fired plants, a representative from Guinea, speaking
for 77 poorer nations and China, said his group could live with the general results.

The Chinese delegation also said it was fine with the positions that would come out of a Glasgow in a final conference agreement.

Plea to embrace deal for next generation

EU climate chief Frans Timmermans drew a rousing round of applause for his comments to the plenary, in which he asked countries to unite around the deal for the sake of "our children, our grandchildren."

"They will not forgive us if we fail them today," he said.

He opened his comments by saying the conference risked "stumbling in this marathon" a few steps before the finish if country delegations demanded new changes to the texts.

The Conference of Parties â€" or COP, as it's known â€" meets every year and is the global decision-making body set up in the early 1990s to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent climate agreements.

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