World leaders reach climate agreement at U.N. summit following two weeks of negotiations

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said the approved climate deal was a “compromise” that nonetheless took important steps in helping to keep alive the goal of limiting global average temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

But Guterres conceded that “the collective political will was not enough to overcome some deep contradictions.”

He called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies; the phasing out of coal; a price for carbon; building the resilience of vulnerable communities; and making good on wealthy nations’ overdue pledges to generate $100 billion a year for a fund to help developing countries mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“We did not achieve these goals at this conference. But we have some building blocks for progress,” he said in remarks that were ultimately more positive than those he issued after COP25 in Madrid.

Guterres was specific in his language around coal, saying that he wanted to “phase out coal.” The coal paragraph in the draft agreement initially called for the “phaseout of unabated coal and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” but was changed to call for a “phase-down of coal” in the final version after arguments from India and China.

In the video address, Guterres also acknowledged young people, Indigenous communities, female leaders and all those leading the “climate action army.”

“I know many of you are disappointed. Success or failure is not an act of nature. It’s in our hands. … The path of progress is not always a straight line. Sometimes there are detours. Sometimes there are ditches.”

But he said they should “Never give up. Never retreat. Keep pushing forward. I will be with you all the way.”

“COP 27 starts now,” he said.

Greta Thunberg’s summation of the climate summit was succinct: “Blah, blah, blah,” she tweeted, moments after the landmark climate pact was announced.

But even if the Swedish teenage activist was disappointed, she said she was not discouraged. Thunberg, who has inspired millions of young people around the world to join her in calling for greater action on climate change, vowed to continue the fight, saying that “we will never give up, ever.”

Thunberg, 18, traveled to Glasgow via train at the start of the COP26 summit, where she got a rockstar-like reception. Last week, she joined two massive marches through Glasgow, including one that saw 100,000 activists spill onto the streets.

Lia Nicholson, a delegate for Antigua and Barbuda, said she expects the creation of a financial mechanism for loss and damage at the next COP conference in exchange for agreeing to watered down language in Saturday’s meeting.

COP27, she said, should create a process for wealthy countries to compensate vulnerable and poor nations that have been most affected by the harms of climate change.

Nicholson, the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, said the group “will accept the text as gaveled, as it stands, with the clear understanding that this dialogue is a key step towards the creation of a loss and damage finance facility.”

On behalf of the Environmental Integrity Group, the Swiss delegate said she wanted to express “profound disappointment” that the agreed-upon language on coal and fossil fuel subsidies has been “further watered down as a result of an intransparent process.”

“Let us be clear: We do not need to phase down, but to phase out coal and fossil fuel subsidies,” Simonetta Sommaruga said. “We are disappointed both about the process and about this last-minute change,” she said, adding that it will make it more difficult to limit warming to 1.5 Celsius. She was met with 25 seconds of applause.

Delegates from the European Union, Mexico, the Marshall Islands and Liechtenstein echoed her disappointment in the weakened language. “For the greater good, we must swallow this bitter pill,” the delegate for Liechtenstein said.

Several nations called out the last-minute change. The delegate for Fiji said that when they tried to introduce language changes “a few days ago” for loss and damage provisions, they were told it was last-minute. “It’s rather ironic that around two hours ago we discussed the text, and now there is an amendment being made to that — and that I would call last-minute, without any due process being followed.”

Mexico shared a similar sentiment, saying: “We believe we have been sidelined in a nontransparent and noninclusive process. … We all have remaining concerns. We were told we could not reopen the text.”

“This commitment on coal had been a bright spot in this package. It was one of the things we were hoping to carry out of here and back home with pride. And it hurts deeply to see that bright spot dimmed,” said Tina Stege, the delegate for the Marshall Islands.

“We accept this change with the greatest reluctance. We do so only — and I want to stress, only — because there are critical elements of this package that people in my country need as a lifeline for their future,” said Stege.

Exhausted negotiators from nearly 200 nations struck a deal Saturday intended to propel the world toward more urgent climate action, but without offering the transformative breakthrough scientists say must happen if humanity is to avert disastrous planetary warming.

Two weeks of high-profile talks yielded a package that pushes countries to strengthen near-term climate targets and move away from fossil fuels faster. It insists that wealthy countries fulfill a broken promise to help vulnerable nations cope with the rising costs of climate change. And it cracks open the door to future payments developed nations might make for damage already done.

Saturday’s agreement, however, does not achieve the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris accord — to limit Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Instead, delegations left Glasgow with the Earth still on track to blow past that threshold, pushing toward a future of escalating weather crises and irreversible damage to the natural world.

Moments before it appeared that nations at the COP26 would agree to a decision on how the world should fight climate change, delegates from China and India proposed a last-minute edit to a contentious provision around transitioning away from polluting fuels.

The paragraph initially called for the “phaseout of unabated coal and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” and would have been the first explicit call out of polluting fuels in a U.N. climate agreement.

India’s climate negotiator Bhupender Yadav proposed that the text be changed to call for a “phase-down” of unabated coal, with an added reference to “targeted support to the poorest and most vulnerable.”

Earlier in the day, Yadav had said that “targeting any particular sector is uncalled for,” adding that “developing countries have a right to their fair share of the global carbon budget.”

After over two hours of nations sounding off on the draft agreement, COP26 president Alok Sharma closed out the informal stocktaking plenary session before 6 p.m. on Saturday.

He said that he understands the different national circumstances at hand, and accordingly, the difficulties of consensus on certain issues. But he said he believes the texts are “fully consistent” with the Paris agreement and the goals of COP26. The draft deals, Sharma said, are “ambitious texts” that “test the boundaries of what parties are able to accept.”

“These outcomes constitute an incredibly delicate balance. There is a fine and fragile green thread which is weaved around this balanced package,” he said. “I do think that if any of us tug at that, it will unravel all too easily.”

“Now is the time to confront our responsibility to our people, to the world, to our planet,” Sharma said as he adjourned the meeting, adding that he hopes delegates can leave the conference “united.”

What will follow is a formal meeting of the COP to consider and adopt the outcome of the delegates’ work in Glasgow. Meetings of the CMP and CMA will be convened in conjunction, he said. The documents up for consideration have been uploaded online.

The environment minister of the Maldives said the incremental efforts in Glasgow are “not in line with urgency and scale required” to help small island nations such as hers.

“We have 98 months to halve global emissions,” Aminath Shauna said Saturday. “The difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees is a death sentence for us.”

The COP26 conference’s resistance to capping the average global temperature increase at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, she said, does not arise from a lack of technology or funding. Rather, she called it another case where “we put our homes on the line, while those who have other options decide how quickly they want to act to save those who don’t.”

“What is balanced and pragmatic to other parties will not help the Maldives adapt in time,” she said. “It will be too late for the Maldives.”