Abdalah Mokssit: There are climatic events that have no turning back 8:53
Glasgow, Scotland (CNN) -
A COP26 climate agreement was reached in Glasgow on Saturday after marathon talks, including for the first time in history a reference to fossil fuels and their role in the climate crisis.
The final text explicitly points to coal, which is the biggest contributor to climate change.
In the 25 pre-Glasgow COPs, no deal has ever mentioned coal, oil or gas, or even fossil fuels in general, as drivers - let alone the main cause - of the climate crisis.
The new draft of the agreement on the last day of COP26 includes an unprecedented reference to fossil fuels
A visibly excited COP26 president, Alok Sharma, made the announcement with hammer blows.
It orally amended the most recent draft of the text by softening the language around fossil fuels after India and Iran raised objections to it.
The final agreement now refers to a "phase-out" of coal rather than a "phase-out."
The talks dragged on overtime as deep divisions persisted on key issues late Friday, when the conference was originally scheduled to end. In addition to the language around fossil fuels, a key point was the amount of money that the developed world should pay to the Global South to help it adapt to the climate crisis.
Sharma previously told delegates that he was "infinitely grateful" for keeping the 1.5 degree commitment alive.
Sharma's overall goal was to strike an agreement that would propel the world to contain global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and no more.
Scientists say a cap is needed to prevent the impacts of the climate crisis from worsening and prevent catastrophic climate change.
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