Even as its capital was blanketed by toxic smog, India led the charge to weaken anti-coal pledges at the COP26 summit. The world's third-largest emitter teamed up with China to water down language on fossil fuels at the Glasgow conference, forcing a compromise: a climate deal that bound countries to "phase down" but not "phase out" coal use. “From a domestic perspective, we cannot phase out coal, as a country, even by 2050. We’ll be depending around 35%-40% by 2050 on coal in any possible aggressive scenarios,” says Samrat Sengupta from the Center for Science and Environment. Climate scientist Matthew England says: “It’s very disappointing to see these final Cop26 resolutions and the wording there watered down like this. Because, put very simply, we have to abandon coal if we are to secure a safe climate future not just in India but worldwide.” +PLEASE SEE VIDI9RM2QU_EN FOR RELEVANT STOCKSHOTS TO GO WITH THIS STORY+ IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES SOUNDBITES from climate experts