Policy Alert #241 | November 16, 2021

The 26th session of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) came to an end on November 13, 2021. The main task for COP26 was to finalize the rules and procedures for implementation of the Paris Agreement. After two weeks of intense deliberations, nearly 200 countries adopted The Glasgow Climate Pact.

The most consequential change was arguably language that requests parties to attend COP27 in Egypt next year, with updated plans on how to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The question now is, will countries actually do it? The Pact expressed “deep regrets” over the failure of developed countries to deliver on their $100 billion promise to help developing nations adapt to the climate crisis. The Pact has asked them to arrange this money urgently and in every year until 2025. 

Notably, the Glasgow Climate Pact is the first UN climate deal to explicitly mention the need to move away from coal power and subsidies for fossil fuels. However, in the face of lobbying from top fossil-fuel-producing countries, this language was watered down during the negotiations. China and India successfully pushed for a last-minute change to the crucial phrase, saying they would agree only to “phase-down unabated coal,” rather than “phase out.”

In an unexpected development, the United States and China announced a Joint Declaration on Climate Change. US Climate Envoy John Kerry and Chinese climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, were seen consulting with each other frequently on the sidelines of the conference. The world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters cooperated with one another more than expected considering the strained ties between Washington and Beijing.

Many world leaders expressed disappointment with the climate deal that emerged in Glasgow. “We’re all well aware that, collectively, our climate ambition and action to date have fallen short on the promises made in Paris,” proclaimed Alok Sharma, President for COP26, after the last-minute change to the fossil fuels provision. But if governments follow through on commitments made during COP26 and ramp up ambition in the next few years, the goals of the Paris Agreement could be within reach.

In this Policy Alert, we examine the rising powers’ reactions to COP26.

China

In a press conference on November 15, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian lamented over the actions of developed countries, which “have not fully responded to the core concerns of developing countries such as adaptation, financing and technical support.” On the other hand, Lijian acknowledged newfound cooperation with the US, claiming “China and the US issued the Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, which provided an important solution to bridging differences among parties.”

• In the nationalist Global Times, Lin Boqiang, Director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, protests the West’s criticism of China and India for changing the wording of the coal deal: “It is unfair for developed countries, which have been relying on coal to fuel economic development, unrestrained for centuries, to ask developing countries, who just started an economic take off, to abandon coal completely.”
• The nationalist Global Times labels the China-US climate declaration as a key step in the right direction: “It not only injected positive energy to global climate actions and success of COP26, but boosted confidence in future bilateral cooperation within the framework of APEC, and created a good atmosphere for the reported Xi-Biden virtual summit.”
• In an op-ed for the independent South China Morning Post, Philip J. Cunningham, author of Tiananmen Moon, believes Biden’s criticism of Xi’s COP26 absence is inappropriate: “Given the pandemic, it’s reasonable for leaders to think carefully about international travel… More importantly… the UN climate event, which requires thousands of people to fly in, is hardly environmentally friendly.”

India

Prime Minister Modi declared India’s goal to achieve the net zero target of balancing the country’s energy consumption by 2070. He also laid out “Panchamrit” or five key points of heading towards this target, including increasing India’s non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030 and reducing its total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tons. India’s new commitments generated positive attention the first two days in Glasgow. However, in the final day of the summit, Indian Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav insisted that the language on coal usage be changed to phased “down” instead of phased “out.” Defending his position, Yadav asserted, “How can anyone expect developing countries to make promises about phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies? Subsidies provide much needed social security and support.” 

• In an op-ed for the liberal Indian Express, Shyam Saran, Former Foreign Secretary of India, argues India’s introduction of an amendment to “phase down” instead of “phase out” coal played negatively with both the developed and developing countries: “It was inept diplomacy… India’s ill-considered amendment on the phasing out of coal pushed the positives of its position off the radar.”
• The business-focused The Economic Times alleges that the visible resistance from India on the final text of the Glasgow Climate Pact helped conceal the role played by China and even the U.S. in the weakened outcome: “It was the U.S. and China who first embraced the term “phase-down” in their bilateral climate agreement, which was adopted in the middle of COP26… yet it was India left looking like the primary holdout on behalf of coal.”
• The pro-government The Pioneer underlines Modi’s calls to ensure transparent climate finance on the sidelines of COP26: “India has been objecting to Chinese infrastructure building in its neighborhood under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Under the BRI, China and Pakistan are building many infrastructure projects, including in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.”

Japan

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida “stated his own determination that Japan will be working in full force to take on climate change.” Japan pledged an additional $2 billion per year for the next five years to help developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change. However, Japan did not sign an agreement to phase out coal power at the UN climate talks because it needed to preserve all its options for power generation, officials claimed. 

• The centrist Japan Times quoted criticism directed at Japan, the world’s third-biggest importer of fossil fuels, in its failure to sign an agreement to phase out coal power: “Despite Prime Minister Kishida pledging to direct increased funding to climate finance… he failed to address… Japan’s dependency on coal.”