COP26 draft agreement calls on countries to phase out coal, fossil fuels

Early Wednesday morning, negotiators at the COP26 U.N. climate summit here in Glasgow released a preliminary draft of an agreement on how countries will work together to curb climate change. The draft deal, which is subject to change, “calls upon Parties to accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels,” although it offers no hard deadlines.

…Mohamed Adow, director of the Kenya-based PowerShift Africa, added “It’s fossil fuels that cause climate change. Explicitly mentioning it gets on the path to addressing it. Our task now is, A, to protect that text but also, B, to strengthen it by making it happen faster but also in equitable manner.”