GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov 5 (Agencies): Over 40 countries have pledged to quit coal at COP26 some of the world's biggest coal-dependent countries, including India, China, US and Australia did not sign on.
Countries that included Indonesia, Poland, Vietnam pledged to phase out coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, in a deal announced Thursday at the United Nations climate summit.
Alok Sharma, the head of the conference, proclaimed that "the end of coal is in sight."
But several of the biggest coal consumers were notably absent from the accord, including China and India, which together burn roughly two-thirds of the world's coal, as well as Australia, the world's 11th-biggest user of coal and a major exporter.
The United States, which still generates about one-fifth of its electricity from coal, also did not sign the pledge.
The pledges to phase out coal come on top of other promises made at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, that the head of an international energy organization said trimmed several tenths of a degree from projections of future warming. But outside experts called that "optimistic."
Optimism also abounded in relation to the promises on coal, which has the dirtiest carbon footprint of the major fuels and is a significant source of planet-warming emissions.
"Today, I think we can say that the end of coal is in sight," said Alok Sharma, who is chairing the conference of nearly 200 nations, known as COP26.
Critics say that vision is still obscured by a lot of smoke because several major economies still have yet to set a date for ending their dependence on the fuel, including the United States, China, India and Japan - which was targeted outside the summit venue Thursday by protesters clad as animated characters.
What nations have promised varies. Some have pledged to quit coal completely at a future date, while others say they'll stop building new plants, and even more, including China, are talking about just stopping the financing of new coal plants abroad.
The British government said pledges of new or earlier deadlines for ending coal use came from more than 20 countries including Ukraine, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia and Chile.
Some came with notable caveats, such as Indonesia's request for additional aid before committing to bring its deadline forward to the 2040s.
Meanwhile, Poland, the second-biggest user of coal in Europe after Germany, appeared to backtrack on any ambitious new commitments within hours of the announcement.
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