Dozens of nations have pledged to phase out the use of coal-fired power, but Australia is not on the list.

More than 70 countries, including Indonesia, Poland and Vietnam, signed on to the deal at the COP26 climate summit in Scotland on Thursday, the UK government said.

Huge coal users and producers like Australia, China, India and the US have not signed up.

The UK said the signatories had agreed to stop investing in new coal plants at home and abroad, and phase out coal-fuelled power generation in the 2030s in richer countries, and the 2040s for poorer nations.

Alok Sharma, the British president of the two-week COP26 conference in Glasgow, said the deal was a step on the way to ending the use of coal, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Coal-fuelled power generation currently accounts for more than 35 per cent of the world's power.

"Today I think we can say that the end of coal is in sight," Mr Sharma told the conference.

The commitments are not binding and some of the signatories have said they will not be able to phase out coal without sufficient financial help from other countries.

Britain hopes nations at the summit in Glasgow will adopt plans to help the world limit the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The country has largely eliminated coal from power generation, but has yet to make a final decision on proposals for a new mine in Cumbria, north-west England, which would extract coal used for steel production.

London has hailed the various deals at the summit in Glasgow, particularly on coal and methane, but it is unclear how the piecemeal initiatives will combine to lower temperature rises.

A spokesman for the Polish government said the country's commitment would see it end coal use in the 2040s.

While climate campaigners called the move a step forward, they said the non-binding pledge would need to be backed up by firm policies.

ABC/Reuters