New Delhi, Nov 17,2021: India did not introduce the term “phase down” of coal in lieu of “phase out” in the final COP26 text, but it was a “compromise text” agreed to by all countries, and India’s Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav was asked to read out the amended text by the COP26 chair, and countries are now pointing to India as the fall guy for that, said sources.
India is planning to officially protest the criticism levelled at it by COP26 chair Alok Sharma over inclusion of the term ‘phase down’ for coal used in the final COP26 declaration text, sources said.
COP26 chair Sharma has said that China and India will have to “explain themselves” to climate-vulnerable nations over the change from “phase out” to “phase down” in the deal agreed to in Glasgow.
The chair Alok Sharma chose to ask one of the members, in this case India’s Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, to read out the compromise text. “And our minister was quite clear when he read it out that this is not India’s national position, and that this is what everybody had agreed to, but it got drowned out in the din of it,” said sources in the know of the deliberations at the Glasgow climate summit.
“The compromise text by everyone there was articulated by our minister. India did not ask for ‘phase down’ to be introduced; it was a proposal that came to us, and we agreed to the final text. We were trying to achieve a consensus, to find a language that would ensure an outcome for the COP26,” the sources added.
In fact, the sources said, the term “phase down” is part of the US-China Joint Glasgow Declaration issued on November 10, which says “China will phase down coal consumption during the 15th Five Year Plan”, which the climate negotiators used in the final text.
On the issue of phasing out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies, the sources emphasized that India is dependent on coal for its energy needs. “We do have concerns regarding coal, but you can’t tell us to shut down our main energy source. Countries (developed ones) that are done with using coal are now using natural gas, and oil, which too are fossil fuels,” the sources pointed out.
“If you (developed countries) tell us phase out coal, phase out fossil fuels, we have a problem with that. We are dependent on coal. We will have to enhance the goals, we don’t have an immediate solution to it.”
On subsidies, the sources said the government is providing LPG subsidy to help people move away from biomass, “to help them have a basic subsistence level”. “And to compare that with 20 times the level of usage that is happening in developed countries (using gas and oil) is unfair,” the source added.
The LPG subsidy is helping people move away from biomass to cleaner fuel, but developed countries want India to phase it out without targeted support, the sources said.
India is okay with removing fossil fuels, “but there needs to be equity in that”. India’s energy requirement is going to go up in per capita basis and aggregate basis, but developed countries are “picking and choosing what they want to phase out”. “For coal they say phase it out, but for other fossil fuels, like gas and oil, they say yes, because they are using it en-mass”.
India said that if the final text has to include the term “phase out” then it should be subject to the inclusion of phrases like “National circumstances”, “poor and vulnerable”. “That was the kind of language we wanted to put in”.
According to the sources “Whenever there are disagreements over text, they go back to the last agreed text, and in this case it was the US and China’s Glasgow Declaration, which used phase down. So phase down came out of that.”
But the Small Island Developing States wanted phase out for the inefficient fossil fuel subsidy, “and we were okay with that”.
“So it was not India’s proposal, but it was a way to close the COP26 after one day of delay,” the sources said.
But towards the end “it turned out to be a blame India game”.
India had mentioned its concerns about phasing out coal right through the deliberations, the sources said.
