Coal ‘Phase Down’ Term Not Introduced By India, Came From US & China: Officials

Another official said that India was indeed not content with the complete “phase out” of coal usage as the country highly depends on it for its power supply.

About 200 nations signed the Glasgow Pact at COP26. (File Photo)

New Delhi: India is seeking to defend itself on the coal “phase down” statement read at the 26th Annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) at Glasgow. The controversy began after COP26 chair Alok Sharma accused India of toning down the efforts of “phasing out” unabated coal usage in order to control climate change.

In its defense, India has said that the statement was altered and read after a consensus among the participants and India only presented it. “It was the Chair of the COP 26, Alok Sharma, who had asked India to introduce the new text on the floor,” an official told PTI.

Another official said that India was indeed not content with the complete “phase out” of coal usage as the country highly depends on it for its power supply. However, it did not introduce the term saying that it was already there in the text.

“However, we did not introduce the term 'phasing down'. It came from the US and China. India is being blamed only because it read out the statement,” he said.

Explaining India’s concern, an official said, “all fossil fuels are bad. Our concern was why coal was being singled out at COP 26. The US is done using coal and has moved to other fossil fuels so they were comfortable doing away with it. This was our problem. "However, we did not introduce the term 'phasing down'. It came from the US and China. India is being blamed only because it read out the statement.”

On the other hand, COP26 President Alok Sharma expressed that it would have been better if the original written statement would have been preserved.

“Of course, I wish that we had managed to preserve the language on coal that was originally agreed,” adding that, “nevertheless, we do have language on coal, on phase-down, and I don't think anyone at the start of this process would have necessarily expected that that would have been retained,” he said.

The Glasgow agreement was signed with a consensus of about 200 nations on November 13.

India And NDC

The officials also clarified that the announcements made by PM Narendra Modi were not updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) but only national goals. The government of India will create separate NDCs which will be released by the environment ministry.

“They are national targets or goals which may be translated into NDCs and submitted by the environment ministry. It is wrong to say that whatever the PM announced are updated NDCs of India,” sources told PTI.