The room where it happened: the dramatic final hours behind the Glasgow Climate Pact

We were told COP26 would be the “last-chance saloon” to save the planet from the ravages of climate change, so it was only fitting for the final hours of the Glasgow summit to end with the diplomatic equivalent of a late night brawl.

After 14 days of speeches, plenaries, bilaterals, trilaterals, multilaterals, panel discussions and backroom wheeling and dealing, the conclave of 30,000 people had come down to this: a showdown in a vast white tent on the banks of the River Clyde.

The gathering of representatives from 196 countries was due to start at midday Saturday, but ended up being pushed back by three hours while senior figures huddled and haggled over the terms of the summit’s all-important declaration, titled the Glasgow Climate Pact.

US climate envoy John Kerry in an impromptu negotiation with top Chinese climate official Xie Zhenhua.Credit: Getty

Phones were produced from pockets and text messages read. Heads nodded or shook in disagreement. At one point, United States climate envoy John Kerry was locked in an exchange with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua, each man pointing to words on a piece of paper and waving their hands about. Kerry then walked on stage to whisper in the ear of COP26 President Alok Sharma and later filled in the European Union’s influential negotiator Frans Timmermans. Kerry went back to talk to Xie; the two shared a fist-bump.

The sausage was being made before our eyes - and the process was indeed not particularly palatable.

United Nations climate change summits are unique beasts in that the consensus of all parties is required for declarations to be adopted - a Herculean task which sometimes looked impossible to clinch as Saturday afternoon dragged on into Saturday night.

Amid China and India’s protestations, Sharma told the gathering that the time for horse-trading was over and he did not want to renegotiate the finely balanced draft declaration. The final document would not please everyone, he conceded, but it was far better than no deal and would keep on track the central goal of restricting warming to 1.5 degrees.

India had other ideas. In a forceful intervention, Indian Environment and Climate Minister Bhupender Yadav attacked the draft pact’s call to accelerate the phase-out of unabated coal power plants and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.

“This climate crisis has been caused by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption,” Yadav boomed. “The world needs to awaken to this reality. Fossil fuels and their use have enabled parts of the world to attain high levels of wealth and wellbeing.”

Indian Environment and Climate Minister Bhupender Yadav made the case for fossil fuels, signalling trouble ahead for the talks.Credit: Getty

A member of the Indian delegation in an exchange with United Kingdom negotiator Archibald Young. Credit: Getty

Consensus remains elusive, he declared. The room, which overwhelmingly backed the deal despite mixed feelings about it, instantly deflated. The last-chance saloon suddenly had a very unpopular patron.

“This climate crisis has been caused by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption.”

Indian Climate Minister Bhupender Yadav

China chimed in too, saying it also wanted changes to the fossil fuels language. South Africa, Nigeria and Venezuela also complained about it. A rebellion was afoot.

Frans Timmermans, the EU negotiator, fumed at the development: “I wonder if we’re not at risk of stumbling in this marathon a couple of metres before reaching the finish line,” he said.

“For heaven’s sake, don’t kill this moment by asking for more text, different text, deleting this, deleting that. I implore you. Please embrace this text so we can bring hope to the hearts of our children and grandchildren. They are waiting for us. They will not forgive us if we fail them today.”

‘I wonder if we’re not at risk of stumbling in this marathon a couple of metres before reaching the finish line.’

Frans Timmermans

Speaking in a bureaucratic manner which would not have helped sleep-deprived delegates stay awake, Australia’s ambassador for the environment, Jamie Isbister, appeared briefly to reveal Canberra “can accept” the text and would not join the India-led rebellion. Chased by television cameras afterwards and offered the chance to discuss Australia’s position, Isbister replied: “It’s not my job to speak.”

Australia’s ambassador for the environment Jamie Isbister speaks during the final session.Credit: Getty

A delegate shakes his head during the negotiations. Credit: AP

Isbister’s trans-tasman colleague, New Zealand Climate Change Minister James Shaw, struck a downbeat note, describing the Glasgow pact as “the least-worst outcome”.

“Is it enough to hold temperature rises to 1.5 degrees? I don’t think I can say it does.”

Antigua and Barbuda also “strongly questioned” whether the deal would stop the worst impacts of climate change. The Maldives warned balance and pragmatism would not help their country. “Please do us the courtesy to acknowledge this does not bring hope to our hearts but serves as another conversation where we have to put our homes on the line,” said the island chain’s Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, representative, Aminath Shauna.

Aminath Shauna, Maldives’ Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, told the delegates: “Please do us the courtesy to acknowledge that it does not bring hope to our hearts.”Credit: AP

The elder statesman Kerry urged everyone to not let the imperfect be the enemy of the good. “Not everyone in public life - and I’ve been in public life a long time - gets to make choices about life and death,” he said. “Not everyone gets to make choices that actually affect an entire planet.”

By now, the COP finale had morphed into part-therapy session, part-forum of legitimate grievance. In one corner was the vast majority of countries happy to accept the deal even though it fell short of what they hoped for, in another was nations like Australia who might have liked the declaration to be weaker but did not wish to rock the boat. And then there was a coterie of powerful nations - comprising India, China, Venezuela, South Africa, Nigeria, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia - whose pro-fossil fuels position was a major threat to consensus.

“Not everyone in public life - and I’ve been in public life a long time - gets to make choices about life and death.”

US Climate Envoy John Kerry

Using his powers as COP26 President, Sharma called their bluff and said he was not willing to alter the declaration. It didn’t work. India insisted on watering-down the document by changing the “phase-out” of coal to the much weaker “phase-down”. The room had no choice but to swallow the change because anything else could have scuttled the whole summit.

Fiji said it was “astonished” by the turn of events. Sharma, who alongside British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had wanted Glasgow to go down in the history books as the summit that consigns coal to history, broke down in tears at the last-minute drama. “I apologise for the way this process has unfolded. I am deeply sorry.”

COP26 President Alok Sharma breaks down in tears after a last-minute change weakened the summit’s position on coal.Credit: Getty

With that, the last chance saloon closed its doors. Did it live up to the hype? Plenty here argue yes. But United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres isn’t so sure. “The approved texts are a compromise,” he said. “They reflect the interests, the conditions, the contradictions and the state of political will in the world today.

“Our fragile planet is hanging by a thread. We are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe. It is time to go into emergency mode - or our chance of reaching net zero will itself be zero.”

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