COP26: New climate agreement pledges coal 'phasedown'

Countries have pledged the phasing down of unabated coal while reiterating efforts to limit global temperature increase to 1.5C in a historic deal reached at the COP26 climate summit.

This is the first time that a COP agreement includes a direct reference to the role of fossil fuels in the climate crisis. One of the initial draft agreements called for the phasing out of coal, but last-minute interventions by India and China led to the text being changed to "phasedown" coal-burning without carbon capture or storage. 

The Glasgow Climate pact emphasises the need for developed countries to help others already suffering the effects of climate change. To do so, countries are aiming to raise $100 billion for their vulnerable, developing counterparts. 

In the new pact, countries reaffirmed their goal of limiting global warming to "well below 2C". The text reads that nations must work "to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C".

Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia said negotiations in Glasgow were intensive and difficult, but Malta has already drafted a costed climate action plan, some of which is already being implemented.

Despite good progress at the negotiating table, the pledges fall short of the global-warming goal. Protections by the Climate Action Tracker indicate that global greenhouse gas emissions need to drop by almost 27 billion metric tons a year in order to limit warming to 1.5C by 2030. 

In reality, the latest pledges will only see an annual reduction of 6.3 billion metric tons compared to current policies. 

Among the other pledges is the promise to stop deforestation altogether while cutting 30% of current methane emissions by 2030.