More than 20 countries agreed to phase out coal power at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, but not Japan – a “leap backwards” for a country that once led the way on the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The pact was among a raft of pledges made at the COP26 summit in the last week. Japan, the world’s third-biggest importer of the dirtiest fossil fuel, declined to sign because it needed to preserve all its options for power generation, officials said. Critics called that short-sighted, even as new the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has agreed to step up other environmental measures. “Despite Prime Minister Kishida pledging to direct increased funding to climate finance, we are disappointed that he failed to address the elephant in […]