Advances were made at the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow, but much more still needs to be done on behalf of the next generations, junior economic affairs minister Dilan Yesilgoz said in a reaction on Twitter on Sunday.

In particular, the minister said she would have liked to see more progress on phasing out the use of coal. In the final declaration, the text ‘phase out’ coal was replaced by ‘phase down’ under pressure from India and China.

‘Despite this, we should not underestimate the results of this conference,’ Yesilgoz said. ‘Important agreements have been made about the global carbon emissions trade and several important pledges were signed .’

The Netherlands initially refused to sign one pledge to stop government funding for fossil fuel projects abroad, but later did a u-turn and agreed.

We zijn er nog niet. Het klimaatakkoord #COP26 is een stap op weg naar een klimaatneutrale wereld. Er moet nog ongelooflijk veel werk verzet worden. Het is nu tijd voor actie en uitvoering.

— Mark Rutte (@MinPres) November 14, 2021

However, Dutch environmental groups said they were disappointed in the outcome of the conference, in particular, the failure to agree to phase out the use of fossil fuels.

Delegates did agree to meet again next year to pledge further major carbon cuts in an effort to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5C. Current agreements will only limit global warming to about 2.4C, and that, experts say, will lead to millions of people being subject to extreme weather conditions.

Coal is responsible for about 40% of annual carbon dioxide emissions.