Cop26 Glasgow news live: Coal-cutting plan to be unveiled amid warning ‘glaring gaps remain’

Another Extinction Rebellion protest is expected outside the Home Office building in Cessnock, Glasgow, on Thursday, while there will be other large marches through the city on Friday and Saturday.

On Wednesday evening, Police Scotland said five arrests had been made at the demonstration, including two after officers were sprayed with paint.

Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie said: “We will provide a proportionate policing response to any protest and it is therefore extremely disappointing that officers were assaulted by having paint sprayed in their faces.

“These officers were simply doing their job and trying to protect people and keep them safe.”

Mr Ritchie said a group of protesters were “contained” around St Vincent Street in order to protect public safety, before being allowed to move towards the Cop26 site within a police cordon.

EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson has said pressures being felt in the global gas supply chain should not deter nations from phasing out coal use.

Instead, she said, it should spur countries to press for clean energy solutions.

“The current situation on the energy markets is no reason to pause the coal exit,” Ms Simson told the United Nations Cop26 climate summit.

“On the contrary it shows the urgency to accelerate the roll out of clean energy solutions and dramatically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.”

Cop26 President Alok Sharma has said that moves to end coal use at the summit meant the 1.5C target was “within reach”.

Speaking at an event launching the coal to clean power transition, he said that he believed the end of the most polluting energy sources was in sight.

He said the statement was from 46 countries, including 23 who were making commitments on ending coal for the first time.

And the “powering past coal alliance” was celebrating new members, including seven new countries and 14 major financial private sector and financial institutions including NatWest, Lloyds Bank and HSBC, he said.

“I do believe we’re getting to a point where we consign coal to history,” Mr Sharma told delegates.

“A brighter future comes ever closer, a future of cleaner air, cheaper power and good green jobs, but we must continue to work together over this vital decade to finish that job.

“The prize is to keep the Paris temperature goal within reach.”

Greenpeace has called a move by around 20 countries and financial institutions to halt finance for fossil fuels overseas a “significant” step in the fight against climate change.

The proposal, which forms part of the ‘Aligning international public finance with the clean energy transition’ initiative, will help to end reliance on technology that emits planet-heating gasses.

Juan Pablo Osornio, head of Greenpeace international’s delegation at Cop26, said: “This is a significant move towards the end of the fossil fuel era. Especially given the global scale of fossil fuel financing, and the fact that the US is backing this agreement.

“It moves the focus beyond simply phasing out coal to the need to end support for all fossil fuels, which is vital if we are to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, and it sends a clear market signal in support of the green transition.

“But to be truly effective we need to look at whether Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Germany and Italy have signed up.

“Countries must make binding national commitments to immediately end all new fossil fuel projects, whether via overseas funding, domestic licensing or permitting.”

An agreement on deforestation by more than 100 countries this week that was signed by Indonesia, home to a third of the world’s rainforests, did not contain a pledge to halt deforestation by 2030, a senior Indonesian official said on Thursday.

“The declaration issued does not refer at all to the ‘end deforestation by 2030’,” vice foreign minister, Mahendra Siregar, said in a statement.

Indonesia’s environment minister earlier said such an arrangement would “inappropriate and unfair”.

However that is how the agreement was sold to the world when it was unveiled earlier this week.

Under the plan, $12bn (£8.75bn) of public funding from governments was to be spent restoring ripped-up land, with a further $7.2bn coming from private investment.

Here is more on the earlier announcement:

The world’s biggest polluter and coal user China, along with other major users and producers, the US, India and Australia, are not part of the efforts, prompting warnings the deal has “glaring gaps”.

Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said: “Any progress towards powering past coal is welcome, but glaring gaps remain.

“There is no commitment from large emitters like China to stop increasing coal at home, and nothing on the phase-out of other fossil fuels.”

Asked about the absence of China and the United States on new pledges on coal, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said progress was being made.

Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Kwarteng said: “Well, of course, they’re engaging in negotiations as well.

“The US, certainly under President Biden, is very much behind the net-zero agenda, and has got lots of pledges to reduce natural gas, to reduce methane.”

No Coal Japan have staged a protest in Glasgow calling on the Asian economic powerhouse to end its reliance on polluting gas, coal and oil.

The environmental group used the Pokemon character Pikachu to make their point along the banks of the River Clyde.

Oxfam has welcomed plans to halt the financing of overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022.

Responding to reports that around 20 countries have committed to the pledge, the charity’s climate policy lead Nafkote Dabi said: “This is an encouraging move that will divert much-needed resources to clean energy and help countries to develop in a low carbon way. Energy is vital to economic and social development, burning fossil fuels is not. This is the only way we can meet the collective goal of limiting global heating to 1.5°C.

“With around 20 governments already on board, it is now vital that others sign up at these talks, including some of the largest funders of overseas coal, oil and gas who are notably absent.

“I also hope that these signatories will bring forward clear commitments to help poorer countries build clean energy systems. They should also progress to phasing out all new fossil fuel projects at home as well as abroad, as the International Energy Agency says we must.”

The business secretary has defended Boris Johnson’s decision to fly back to London from the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.

The prime minister arrived at Stansted Airport on board the government Airbus jet on Tuesday evening after the short flight. Critics say he could and should have taken the train.

Kwasi Kwarteng told the ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme: “So he’s travelled back like many world leaders did, they came here for world leaders day, I think we had 120 heads of governments on Monday, and many of them flew back to their countries and went back.

“What is completely without question is the fact that in the UK, the prime minister is leading a government that’s totally focused on net-zero, and as I’ve said, we’ve had huge successes, we had 40 per cent of our electricity was generated by coal 10 years ago, and today that’s 1 per cent.”

Among the announcements expected on Thursday is that Poland, Vietnam, Chile and other countries are expected to pledge to phase out coal-fuelled power generation and stop building new plants.

The UK has said the deal – which is set to be fully unveiled at midday – would commit 190 nations and organisations to quit the fuel.

However it was not immediately clear if the deal would involve countries like China, India, Indonesia and Turkey, which have numerous new coal power developments planned.

In September, China said it would stop funding overseas coal plants, although the pledge did not cover domestic projects.