Glasgow, Scotland · 13 November 2021
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) concluded on 13 November 2021 with the adoption of the Glasgow Climate Pact — the first-ever UN climate agreement to explicitly mention the reduction of coal power and fossil fuel subsidies. After two weeks of negotiations that ran more than 24 hours past the scheduled close, nearly 200 nations agreed to a compromise text that kept the 1.5 degree global warming target alive, but only, as COP26 President Alok Sharma acknowledged, with a "weak pulse."
The conference, hosted at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November 2021, brought together over 40,000 registered participants including heads of state, negotiators, climate scientists, and civil society representatives. It was the largest UN climate conference held in the UK to date.
The Coal Breakthrough — and Its Compromise
The most closely watched element of the Glasgow Climate Pact was its language on fossil fuels. For the first time in the 26-year history of UN climate negotiations, the final agreement explicitly referenced coal — the single largest source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
The final pact text "calls upon Parties to accelerate the development, deployment and dissemination of technologies, and the adoption of policies, to transition towards low-emission energy systems, including by rapidly scaling up the deployment of clean power generation and energy efficiency measures, including accelerating efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."
However, the specific wording was the subject of intense, last-minute controversy. The draft text presented on 12 November called for the "phase out" of unabated coal power. In the final hours of the summit, India — supported by China and other coal-reliant nations — intervened to request a change from "phase out" to "phase down," arguing that a complete phase-out was incompatible with the development needs of countries still dependent on coal for energy access.
The term "unabated" was also significant — it implies that coal power plants equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, or other methods to neutralise their emissions, are not covered by the call to phase down. Similarly, the commitment to phase out "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies left the term "inefficient" undefined, creating ambiguity about implementation.
Key Outcomes Beyond Coal
The Glasgow Climate Pact included several other significant elements:
- Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): Parties were asked to "revisit and strengthen" their 2030 emissions reduction targets by the end of 2022, rather than waiting until the next five-year cycle in 2025. This was intended to close the gap between current pledges and the 1.5 degree pathway.
- Adaptation: The pact urged developed countries to at least double their collective climate finance for adaptation to developing countries from 2019 levels by 2025.
- Loss and Damage: While the establishment of a dedicated funding facility for loss and damage was not agreed, parties established the "Glasgow Dialogue" to discuss arrangements for funding loss and damage — a priority for vulnerable nations.
- Article 6: After years of deadlock, negotiators finalised the rules for international carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, establishing a framework for carbon credit trading and a mechanism to replace the Clean Development Mechanism.
Pledges and Announcements
COP26 also produced a series of multilateral pledges outside the formal negotiating text:
| Pledge | Signatories | Commitment |
|---|---|---|
| Global Methane Pledge | 100+ countries | Reduce methane emissions 30% by 2030 |
| Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use | 140+ countries | Halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 |
| Coal to Clean Power Transition Statement | 40+ countries | Phase out coal power in the 2030s (2040s for developing) |
| Beyond Oil and Gas Coalition | 12 countries | End new oil and gas exploration |
India made a major announcement at the summit, committing to net-zero emissions by 2070 — the first time the world's third-largest emitter set such a target. India also pledged to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel energy capacity by 2030 and to reduce the emissions intensity of its economy by 45% by 2030.
The 1.5 Degree Gap
Despite the progress at Glasgow, analysis by the Climate Action Tracker indicated that the combined NDCs submitted before and during COP26 would still lead to approximately 2.4 degrees of warming by 2100 — well above the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Agreement.
The pact's requirement for countries to strengthen their 2030 targets by the end of 2022 was designed to narrow this gap, but compliance with this request was uneven in the months that followed.
Reception and Legacy
The Glasgow Climate Pact received mixed reactions. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the outcome a "compromise" that reflected "the interests, the contradictions, and the state of political will in the world today." Climate vulnerable nations — particularly small island states — expressed deep frustration at the watering down of coal language and the failure to establish a loss and damage funding facility.
Environmental groups and activists, including Greta Thunberg, dismissed the conference as "more of the same" and a failure. Others, however, highlighted the historic nature of the coal language and the progress on Article 6, adaptation finance, and methane reductions.
Sources
- UNFCCC, "The Glasgow Climate Pact: Key Outcomes from COP26":
- UN, "COP26":
- UNFCCC, Glasgow Climate Pact (full text):
- World Resources Institute, "Glasgow Climate Pact":
- The Guardian, "COP26: countries agree to accept imperfect climate agreement" (13 November 2021)
- IISD, COP26 Summary Report:
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Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
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