COP26 deal ‘a big step forward’: UK Prime Minister

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday called the deal struck at the UN COP26 climate change summit “a big step forward” but warned there was “a huge amount more to do”.

“There is still a huge amount more to do in the coming years,” Johnson said after the Glasgow summit.

“But today’s agreement is a big step forward and, critically, we have the first ever international agreement to phase down coal and a roadmap to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees,” he added.

Nearly 200 nations came together on the global deal to combat climate change after two weeks of painful negotiation, but fell short of what science says is needed to contain dangerous temperature rises.

British leader Johnson, whose government hosted the event, said “we asked nations to come together for our planet at COP26, and they have answered that call.

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“I hope that we will look back on COP26 in Glasgow as the beginning of the end of climate change, and I will continue to work tirelessly towards that goal,” he added.

The British president of the COP26 climate summit, Alok Sharma, said he wished he had been able to preserve the originally agreed language on phasing out coal power in the Glasgow climate deal.

“Of course, I wish that we had managed to preserve the language on coal that was originally agreed,” he told reporters.

“Nevertheless, we do have language on coal, on phase down, and I don’t think anyone at the start of this process would have necessarily expected that that would have been retained.”

• Europe