Budget 2018-19

  New draft retains call for reduced fossil fuel subsidies; poor nations seek funds to tackle climate change UN climate talks ended with a deal that for the first time targeted fossil fuels as the key driver of global warming, even as coal-reliant countries, led by India, lobbed last-minute objections. While the agreement won applause for keeping alive the hope of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, many of the nearly 200 national delegations wished they’d come away with more. The negotiators at the  COP26 summit  here recognised India’s intervention for the world to “phase down” rather than “phase out” fossil fuels. After a huddle between the envoys from India, China, the United States and European Union, the clause was hurriedly amended to ask countries to “phase down” their coal use. “It is so decided,” said Alok Sharma, the president of COP26, as he declared the new pact with a stroke of his gavel after marathon talks which began earlier this month and conc...

  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Rome summit was not all he hoped for Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies agreed on a final statement on Sunday that urged “meaningful and effective” action to limit global warming, but offered few concrete commitments, angering climate activists. The result of days of tough negotiation among diplomats leaves huge work to be done at the broader United Nations COP26 climate summit in Scotland, which starts this week. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi hailed the Rome gathering, saying for the first time all G20 states had agreed on the importance of capping global warming at the 1.5 degrees Celsius level that scientists say is vital to avoid disaster. “We made sure that our dreams are not only alive but they are progressing,” Draghi told a closing news conference, brushing off criticism from environmentalists that the G20 had not gone nearly far enough to resolve the crisis UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who warned on F...