 "UN criticises Britain, Germany for undermining Paris climate deal")
The Guardian quoted Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and UN special envoy on climate change, as saying that Germany is in the wrong for compensating for coal power and the UK was wrong for announcing tax breaks for oil and gas in the last year.
She was quoted, as saying, "It's regrettable. That's not in the spirit (of Paris). In many ways, the UK was a real leader (on climate change) and hopefully the UK will become again a real leader. But it's not at the moment."
Robinson said, "Germany says it's on track to end coal subsidies by 2018 but the German government is also introducing new mechanisms that provide payment to power companies for their ability to provide a constant supply of electricity, even if they are polluting forms, such as diesel and coal."
She urged the German government to make a real commitment to get out of coal, adding that all countries should end fossil fuel subsidies.
These steps, she claimed, would be financially and economically debilitating, not to speak of the environmental damage in the long term.
In December 2015, nearly 200 countries adopted the Paris Agreement, the first global pact to jointly fight climate change, pledging to collectively cut greenhouse gas emissions, most of which come from the burning of oil, coal and gas for energy.
