By Usaid Siddiqui- AL JAZEERA
Negotiators at the United Nations COP26 climate crisis conference in Glasgow continue to bargain on how to stop catastrophic climate change on the summit’s final day.
After nearly two weeks of talks, the almost 200 countries represented at COP26 remain at odds over a number of issues, including how rich nations have a duty to compensate poor ones for damage caused by climate-driven disasters and how often nations should be required to update their emissions pledges.
A new draft agreement was published on Friday, which while retaining a central demand for countries to set tougher climate pledges next year, used weaker language than a previous one in asking nations to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, which are the prime man-made cause of global warming.
Meanwhile, protesters continued to rally outside the COP26 venue to push for a stronger deal.
Reaching agreement is ‘personal’: EU Climate chief
The European Union’s climate chief says clinching an agreement is a “personal” issue for negotiators at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow because it will affect the lives of their children and grandchildren.
Frans Timmermans told fellow negotiators on Friday that he had received a picture of his grandson in the morning.
“If we succeed, he’ll be living in a world that’s livable,” Timmermans said. “If we fail, and I mean fail now in the next couple of years, he will fight with other human beings for water and food. That’s the stark reality we face.”
Fossil fuel subsidies ‘definition of insanity’: US
US climate envoy John Kerry said spending fortunes on fossil fuel subsidies was “the definition of insanity” as marathon COP26 talks inch towards a final reckoning.
Kerry said trillions of dollars have been spent on subsidies “in the last five or six years. That is the definition of insanity.”
“We’re the largest oil and gas producer in the world. We have some of those subsidies,” he said.
“Those subsidies have to go.”
