Cop26 live death knell for coal has been sounded says Boris Johnson

Johnson is asked about sleaze and his own personal contribution to tackling climate change. Johnson says that of course he thinks things could certainly have been handled better by me [on sleaze question]. And says he used to travel everywhere by bike [on his personal contribution for reducing carbon emissions].

He then ends the press conference.

Both Johnson and Sharma defend India over the watering down of the coal resolution. Sharma says India is pledging to get 50% of power from renewables by 2030.

Sharma says he travelled here today by train and electric car, at which point Johnson interrupts and tells him he is showing off.

Sharma says he doesn’t agree with restricting the use of flights by politicians and says it’s a personal choice and that he prefers the carrot rather than stick approach to encourage change.

Johnson is asked about how he rates the outcome of the Cop26 conference, he says it is “over 6/10”.

Another non-Cop26 question on MPs and second jobs, Johnson says, “It’s very important MPs work primarily for their constituents and anyone who lobbies on behalf of a commercial interest is clearly in breach of the rules.”

And back to the coal resolution issue, Johnson says whether it’s ‘phase out’ or ‘phase down’ it’s a downward gradient and that’s a first. He says Greenpeace has said as a result of Cop26 the era of coal is ending.

The Greenpeace statement Johnson was referring to was this one from Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, who said in reaction to the final agreement: “It’s meek, it’s weak and the 1.5C goal is only just alive, but a signal has been sent that the era of coal is ending. And that matters.”

China and India will have to explain themselves to developing countries for watering down the coal resolution from ‘phasing out’ to ‘phasing down’ coal-fired power generation, says Sharma. Johnson doesn’t comment directly on China or India.

Alok Sharma is now talking. You will never get coal in the language, I was told he says, but we have done it. We’ve got every country to look at their 2030 targets next year. And every year ministers will look at this issue to see if we’re meeting these commitments. These are historic firsts, says Sharma.

Johnson is now taking questions from the media. In a non-Cop26 question on the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, he says she needs to be allowed to get on with her “extremely difficult job”.

Back to Cop26, Johnson says countries must stick to their pledges now. But he says the social power of people demanding change is growing and that in a matter of a few years it will be unacceptable to start a new coal-fired power station around the world.

I accept this is not the solution, but we’ve delivered just about as much as we hoped including getting coal into the final text, which was a great achievement, adds Johnson.

Johnson says the Cop26 talks in Glasgow have put the world on course for around 2C of warming. The world is undeniably heading in the right direction, he says, and 1.5C is still alive.

In reference to the last-minute watering-down of the coal resolution, Johnson says: “We can lobby, we can cajole, we can encourage but we cannot force sovereign nations to do what they do not wish to do. It is ultimately their decision and they must stand by it.”

90% of the world’s economy is committing to net zero ending their contribution to climate change altogether, he says. And 130 countries have signed up to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 and those countries are home to 90% of the world’s forests, he adds.

“The conference marked the beginning of the end for coal,” says Johnson. “For the first time ever the conference published a mandate to cut the use of coal power.” “The conference has sounded the death knell for coal power”, he adds.

The press conference has just started. Boris Johnson is joined by the Cop26 chair Alok Sharma.

The UK prime minister is due to hold a press conference on Cop26 from Downing Street, London, at 5pm today. We will post updates here.

Johnson has taken some flak for his contribution to the conference, particularly his decision to fly back on a private plane rather than take the four and a half hour train journey from Glasgow to London.

He was accused of “staggering hypocrisy” after it later emerged that he had flown back to attend a dinner at a men-only private members’ club.

Eriel Deranger, the executive director of the Indigenous Climate Action group, said the final agreement left her “sad, angry, empowered and scared”:

This year global Indigenous People represented the second largest civil society delegation in attendance, second only to oil and gas lobbyists. Last night as the final language was adopted I couldn’t help but see both our presence and the presence of oil and gas in the outcomes. The final text left me sad, angry, empowered and scared. While we succeeded in getting references to human rights and rights of Indigenous peoples, it has fallen flat. These references mean little if they are also creating loopholes for dirty corporations and high polluting nations to “offset” their emissions by buying and trading the air and our lands and territories without our consent or participation.

It’s simply lip service in the name of business as usual if our people do not have power to make decisions for ourselves, participate in the processes or have mechanisms for grievances. It’s clear governments are unwilling to decouple themselves from corporate interests, that dominated negotiations this year, and that the rights of our communities are nothing more than bargaining chips. For our communities the real work begins when we get home and have to tell our people we didn’t succeed, and that the risks and threats to our people and land will continue, and increase, and that our fight for climate justice still wages on.

Tim Crosland, director with environmental charity Plan B which took the government to court over its plans to build a new runway at Heathrow, is pretty scathing about the outcome of Cop26.

“Despite the determined efforts of many to present COP26 as “important progress”, such claims are no more than propaganda and greenwash. In objective terms, COP26 has ended in absolute failure,” he said.

Crosland added that it was important for the media to “call this out” so “public and political attention can be turned to a) the causes of failure and b) what can be done about them.”

It’s not that our politicians are evil. They don’t want us all to die. But they are blinded by ideology to the real cause of the crisis, which is an economic model which depends on short-term profits and compound economic growth, which can only be maintained through the concentrated power of fossil fuels.

António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, says Glasgow laid the building blocks for progress but is very clear there is much more to do â€" starting with ending the massive taxpayer-funded handouts that governments give to fossil fuel companies every year.

António Guterres (@antonioguterres)

We must end fossil fuel subsidies.
Phase out coal.
Put a price on carbon.
Protect vulnerable communities.
And make good on the $100 billion climate finance commitment to support developing countries.

We didn't achieve that at #COP26, but we have building blocks for progress.

November 14, 2021

Tzeporah Berman, an academic and activist with the Stand Earth charity, says that what was achieved at Glasgow was “historic” â€" but only because the bar has been set so low by a compromised system:

Tzeporah Berman (@Tzeporah)

Historic. And insufficient. That is the dilemma of climate era. We are so stuck in our current systems & so heavily influenced by incumbents who stand to benefit from status quo that even the qualified acknowledgement in text of #COP26 of one fossil fuel, coal feels historic. 🧵

November 14, 2021

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