Cop26 news: Boris Johnson says pact ‘sounds death knell for coal’ but admits disappointment at pledges

Acknowledging the limits of the agreement in Glasgow, Boris Johnson said: “Those for whom climate change is already a matter of life and death, who can only stand by as their islands are submerged, their farm land turned to desert, their homes battered by storms, they demanded a high level of ambition from this summit.

“While many of us were willing to go there, that wasn’t true of everybody. Sadly that’s the nature of diplomacy.

“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’s ultimately their decision to make and they must stand by it.

“But for all that, we can be immensely proud of what has been achieved by Alok Sharma and his team.”

Cop26 president Alok Sharma said he was emotional when negotiations concluded because he felt “the weight of the world” on his shoulders.

Speaking alongside the PM, Mr Sharma said: “I can tell you there was one really tense hour where I did feel the weight of the world on my shoulders... this deal was absolutely in jeopardy. We got it over the line.”

He told the press conference: “The reason I said sorry... at the event was not because I thought that we didn’t have a historic achievement, it’s because at the end, people thought the process was opaque.”

Asked how he reached the Downing Street press conference so quickly after the late night sealing of the Glasgow pact, Alok Sharma said he had used train and electric car to reach central London.

And responding to a question about encouraging people to fly less, the Cop26 president said it was a matter of personal choice but that the government was pursuing policies aimed at reducing the environmental impact of aviation.

The prime minister, asked what he was doing personally to reduce his carbon footprint, said he used to cycle everywhere by bike, but appeared unable to add to that with any recent changes to his lifestyle (Mr Sharma last month revealed he was now vegetarian).

Boris Johnson defended the pact agreed at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow following a furious backlash from campaigners and poorer countries appalled by the “weak” and watered-down deal.

The prime minister hailed the agreement and dismissed criticism over the dramatic last-minute change forced by India and China so the commitment was to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal power.

Mr Johnson insisted that he Glasgow Climate Pact had “sounded the death knell for coal power” and claimed that the change in wording was not very significant.

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China and India will need to explain to developing nations why they pushed to water down language on efforts to phase out coal at the Cop26 conference, Alok Sharma has said.

India, backed by China and other coal-dependent developing nations, rejected a clause calling for a “phase out” of coal-fired power, and the text was changed to “phase down”.

“In terms of China and India, they will on this particular issue have to explain themselves,” Mr Sharma told the news conference at Downing Street.

Li Shuo, senior global policy advisor with Greenpeace East Asia, said “Glasgow did not deliver 1.5C, it only kept the goal alive”.

He said: “If countries work hard enough immediately after this Cop. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) have to be revisited and strengthened next year. We need not just targets on paper, but real action in practice.

“Cop26 took place in a challenging geopolitical environment. The US and China managed their differences and demonstrated the need for cooperation. But the climate crisis demands the global community to do more than what Beijing and Washington are able to agree.

“This time, different from Paris, the multilateral train moved faster than the G2 agreement. Time for the world’s two largest emitters to catch up to really lead from the front.”