Glasgow pact: Significant leeway on coal, but climate funding unresolved

Saturday’s Glasgow pact reneged on the promise of credible climate financing for the developing countries and was non-committal on the phasing out of oil and natural gas by the rich world, yet New Delhi could feel satisfaction at not letting the pact impose on itself an impractical obligation to ‘phase out’ the use of coal.

Coal is the mainstay of India’s energy mix and will remain so for a few more decades, even as its share in the mix will markedly plunge with the renewable energy and benign fuels like hydrogen set to made rapid strides. After a huddle between the envoys from India and China, the US and European Union was forced to make last-minute changes to the clause on coal, to ask countries to “phase down” their coal use, instead of phasing it out.