"Don’t be too critical on China for changing pledge on coal, EU’s climate chief says"

From CNBC November 17:

• The deal agreed at COP26 sought to build on 2015′s Paris Agreement and prevent the worst effects of climate change.
• It faced stumbling blocks related to the phasing out of coal, fossil fuel subsidies and financial support to low-income countries. 

The EU’s climate chief told CNBC that he “wouldn’t be too critical of China” when it comes to assessing negotiations at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

The deal agreed at COP26 sought to build on 2015′s Paris Agreement and prevent the worst effects of climate change, although it faced stumbling blocks related to the phasing out of coal, fossil fuel subsidies and financial support to low-income countries.

India and China, both among the world’s biggest burners of coal, insisted on a last-minute change of fossil fuel language in the pact — from a “phase out” of coal to a “phase down.” After initial objections, opposing countries ultimately conceded.

In an interview with Silvia Amaro at the European Business Summit in Brussels, Frans Timmermans — who is the European Commission’s executive vice president for the European Green Deal and was present during negotiations in Glasgow — was asked if he felt China had failed to meet the expectations he had for COP26.

“No,” he replied. “First of all, they entered into … a joint declaration with the United States. Now, these two countries have many issues where they differ — and sometimes differ very strongly — but by joining in one declaration they declared that this issue transcends other political issues.”....

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If interested see also November 18's Global Warming: "Useful idiots' who let China off the hook: Why is there such an apparent lack of concern over their determination to keep burning coal":

So we are clear on what is going on, here is Worldometer's listing of the world's consumption of coal by country, based on the BP Statistical Yearbook, 2020:

#	Country	Yearly Coal Consumption (MMcf)	World Share	Cubic Feet Per Capita
1	China	4,319,921,826,000	50.5 %	3,055.00
2	India	966,288,692,600	11.3 %	729.54
3	United States	731,071,000,000	8.5 %	2,263.27
4	Germany	257,488,592,900	3.0 %	3,132.70
5	Russia	230,392,143,100	2.7 %	1,585.90
6	Japan	210,559,949,300	2.5 %	1,648.05
7	South Africa	202,298,474,200	2.4 %	3,599.13
8	South Korea	157,124,158,500	1.8 %	3,081.87
9	Poland	148,799,901,400	1.7 %	3,916.90
10	Australia	129,642,679,100	1.5 %	5,343.29

China is not just the largest burner of coal but it burns more coal than the rest of the world combined, and they have burned more coal than the rest of the world combined since at least 2014 and probably longer.....

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