Summary

  • A deal has been reached at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow after nearly two weeks of negotiations

  • Boris Johnson calls it a "big step forward" but says there is a huge amount of work still to be done

  • India and China asked for a crucial last minute-change to the agreement, calling for the "phase-down" not the "phase-out" of coal power

  • Alok Sharma says it was important to get a deal done - but many countries voiced serious disappointment

  • The deal is receiving a mixed reaction - Greenpeace says it keeps the 1.5C goal "only just alive"

  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres meanwhile says: "It's an important step but it's not enough"

  • The summit's overall goal was to chart a path to keep warming limited to 1.5C and avoid the worst impacts of climate change

  1. What actually is this text and what are the sticking points?published at 08:46 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2021

    The draft agreement - also called a "cover decision" - is the second version of the deal which could be agreed by all 196 countries taking part in COP26.

    Governments and representatives have been hammering out the wording around tricky issues since the first draft was published on Wednesday.

    A key sticking point has been climate finance - the money promised by richer countries to poorer countries to fight climate change.

    It is controversial because developed countries are responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions but developing countries will see the worst effects of climate change.

    As we've mentioned already the line about fossil fuels in the first draft has been weakened. It was the first inclusion of a reference to fossil fuels in a UN decision document of this type, but was expected to get fierce pushback from countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia.

  2. A long day aheadpublished at 08:39 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2021

    Helen Briggs
    Environment correspondent in Glasgow

    This is meant to be the final day of negotiations - unless of course the talks go into extra time, as many previous climate summits have done.

    The COP26 president, Alok Sharma, wants to stick to a deadline of 18:00GMT on Friday, but many divisions remain over the text that will form the main outcome of the talks.

    The endgame rests on intense diplomacy by ministers, who will meet during the day to try to hammer out any final issues. The text needs to to be agreed by all parties and nothing will be a done deal until the gavel goes down.

  3. 'Promises ring hollow' on fossil fuels - UN Secretary Generalpublished at 08:32 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2021

    The UN's Secretary General António Guterres has warned the aim of reducing global warming to 1.5C is currently on "life support".

    Speaking to the Associated Press news Agency last night, before the latest draft agreement was published, he emphasised promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are pointless while governments around the word persist with investment in fossil fuels.

    "Promises ring hollow when the fossil fuels industry still receives trillions in subsidies," Guterres says.

    He describes the announcements of the summit released so far as insufficient, adding: "We know what must be done."

    However, Guterres argues there is hope "until the last moment" of the conference.

  4. Watering down of language on coal and fossil fuelspublished at 08:27 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2021

    A power plantImage source, Getty Images

    As we’ve mentioned the climate summit's new draft agreements, external have been published.

    We are going through the documents now to see what has changed but among the initial rewrites is a weakening of a line on the phasing out of fossil fuels.

    The previous version called upon parties to "accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels".

    But this has been changed to call for “accelerating the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels”.

    Unabated coal is coal produced without the use of technology to capture the emitted carbon.

    This bit of the text also calls on parties to accelerate the development and deployment of technologies and policies to transition towards low-emission energy systems.

    While this is likely to be seen as a blow there is a strengthening of the language on bringing countries back to do better next year. It now says "requests" rather than "urges".

    There is also stronger language about helping and paying poorer countries to fight climate change.

  5. Good morning and welcomepublished at 08:21 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2021

    António Guterres and Alok SharmaImage source, PA Media

    Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the final scheduled day of the COP26 summit.

    The conference has been described as the “last chance saloon” but talks remain in the balance with growing fears that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is unlikely to be met.

    UN Secretary General António Guterres has told the Associated Press news agency that goal was on "life support".

    Money remains one of the key issues, with advisers to COP26 president Alok Sharma calling for more finance for developing nations impacted by climate change.

    Negotiators have spent the night hammering out a new draft agreement, external which has just been published.

    Our experts are examining the wording of the new draft - we'll bring you updates soon.

    And we’ll be bringing you updates throughout the day as negotiations go down to the final hours.