COP26: China, US, India and Australia absent from global coal pact
China, US, and India and Australia have not joined 48 nations pledging to phase out coal production.
All four countries are collectively responsible for over 50 per cent of coal emissions.
The pact was agreed at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, and commits countries to ending coal power usage in the 2030s across major economies, and by the 2040s for the rest of the world.
This includes 23 nations joining the pledge for the first time at the climate conference, including Poland, Vietnam and Chile.
Despite the lack of involvement from the world’s biggest emitters, Cop26 president and cabinet minister Alok Sharma believes the end of coal production is now in sight.
Sharma praised the agreement and argued that it ensures he goals of the Paris Agreement such as maintaining global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees, remained in reach.
He said: “I do believe we’re getting to a point where we consign coal to history. A brighter future comes ever closer, a future of cleaner air, cheaper power and good green jobs, but we must continue to work together over this vital decade to finish that job.”
The Climate Transparency Report recently revealed that carbon emissions are rebounding across the world’s richest 20 nations.
The study showed that CO2 emissions are projected to rise by four per cent across the G20 this year due to increasing energy demands in developed economies.
This increase is being powered by coal usage, which is expected to rise by five per cent across the G20 in 2021.
Meanwhile, China is now pushing its coal miners to sell at a discount, after it intervened in the energy markets to ease a domestic power crunch.
It has been struggling with an energy crisis that has caused blackouts and forced factories to close down for four days a week
Sharma has also praised the separate “powering past coal alliance” which now has 28 members, including seven new countries and 14 major financial private sector and financial institutions including NatWest, Lloyds Bank and HSBC.
He said: “I do believe we’re getting to a point where we consign coal to history. A brighter future comes ever closer, a future of cleaner air, cheaper power, and good green jobs, but we must continue to work together over this vital decade to finish that job.”