New Delhi: At Glasgow’s international climate conference COP 26. Phase down the unabated coal was not on India’s language in the conference but was introduced by China and Us government sources said to PTI said on Wednesday and they added that it was “unfair” to criticize India for the “phase down” statement.
On the condition of anonymity, the sources also asserted that the term “phase down” was already there in the text of the conference.
Explaining how the whole situation unfolded, official sources said that many countries had objected to the initial text of “phasing out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies” after which a consensus was reached among the parties and a new text was arrived at which contained the term “phase down” instead of “phase out”.
“It was the Chair of the COP 26, Alok Sharma, who had asked India to introduce the new text on the floor,” an official said, adding that it was “unfair” on the part of those blaming India for promoting phase down, rather than phase out coal power, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The official said that “all fossil fuels are bad. Our concern was why coal was being singled out at COP 26. The US is done using coal and has moved to other fossil fuels so they were comfortable doing away with it. This was our problem. “However, we did not introduce the term ‘phasing down’. It came from the US and China. India is being blamed only because it read out the statement.”
COP 26 President Sharma had also expressed disappointment over the use of the term “phasing down” of coal in the final outcome saying he wished that the originally agreed language on phasing out coal power in the Glasgow climate deal had been preserved.
“Of course, I wish that we had managed to preserve the language on coal that was originally agreed,” he had told reporters, adding that, “nevertheless, we do have language on coal, on phase down, and I don’t think anyone at the start of this process would have necessarily expected that that would have been retained.”
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
