Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 95% certainty 4/5 debate potential 4/5

Rathi: US and China originated the COP26 'phase down' coal language

Akshat Rathi · How the Glasgow climate deal nearly collapsed · Nov 19, 2021 · at 12:50

Akshat Rathi is a senior climate reporter at Bloomberg News discussing the behind-the-scenes diplomatic maneuvering during the COP26 climate negotiations in Glasgow.

0:00 / 0:35exact quote · 35.2s

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“And that two or three page document that Came on Wednesday was what then set the tone for the deal to happen on the Saturday, and in that deal is where we had the language around phase down of coal, and that's the language that eventually made it into the final deal as well, except India took the blame because India and the minister from India was the one who was reading that language out, and so on the world stage where it was playing out, it looked like it was India's demand Except, of course, it was both US and China behind that too.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

The bilateral agreement between the United States and China at COP26 included the 'phase down' of coal language before India publicly proposed it in the final Glasgow Climate Pact plenary.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim is fully supported by the official timeline and texts from COP26. On November 10, 2021, the United States and China released the 'U.S.-China Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s', which specifically included in Section 9(c) that 'China will phase down coal consumption during the 15th Five Year Plan'. Three days later, during the closing plenary on November 13, 2021, India's then-Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, proposed an oral amendment to change the text in the Glasgow Climate Pact from 'phase-out' to 'phasedown' of unabated coal power.

The U.S.-China Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s was issued on November 10, 2021, containing the commitment: 'China will phase down coal consumption during the 15th Five Year Plan and make best efforts to accelerate this work.'
India's delegation introduced the oral amendment changing 'phase-out' to 'phasedown' of unabated coal power during the closing plenary of COP26 on November 13, 2021.

Checked against

[1] iisd.org [2] state.gov [3] carbonbrief.org [4] state.gov [5] theguardian.com [6] unfccc.int [7] carbonbrief.org [8] thewire.in

US China Joint Glasgow Declaration November 10 2021 coal phase down US China Joint Glasgow Declaration Enhancing Climate Action 2020s text coal phase down COP26 Glasgow Climate Pact coal phase down India plenary November 13 2021

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

China Glasgow Climate Pact India United States

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