At the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, negotiators have backed away from including a call to phase out coal as well as fossil fuel subsidies in the latest draft agreement, which was released today — the final scheduled day of the two-week summit. An earlier draft called for “phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels.” The new draft calls for the phaseout of “unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.” The draft also called for wealthy nations to double the amount of money they give to developing countries to deal with the climate crisis. But during Thursday’s high-level session, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate questioned such pledges from wealthy nations.
Vanessa Nakate: “I have come here to tell you that we don’t believe you. We don’t believe that banks will suddenly put trillions of dollars on the table for climate action, when rich countries have struggled since 2009 to raise $100 billion for the world’s most vulnerable countries.”