Boris Johnson is asked by the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg what chance he thinks there is of making progress with some 200 countries in Glasgow, when there hasn't been enough progress with just 20 countries in Rome.

He says his hopes depend on "the will, the courage and the leadership of everybody in the room" at COP26.

He adds that it is global citizens as well as other governments who are also demanding action.

That's true. Thousands of activists have already arrived in Glasgow to make their voices heard - and leaders from countries especially vulnerable to climate change are not mincing their words when it comes to calling for action.

G20 climate words leave 'glimmer of hope'published at 16:58 Greenwich Mean Time 31 October 2021

16:58 GMT 31 October 2021

Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst in Glasgow

Looking at its official communiqué, the G20 summit looks to have slightly shifted the debate.

At the 2015 climate conference in Paris, governments agreed to hold the global average temperature increase well below 2C, and strive to limit it to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Now the G20 have taken a further step. They say: “We recognise that the impacts of climate change at 1.5C are much lower than at 2C.” (My italics.)

They add: “Keeping 1.5C within reach will require meaningful and effective actions and commitment by all countries.”

In other words: we must do more - with greater urgency.

The G20 commit to take further action this crucial decade – and to update their pledged emissions cuts “where necessary”.

It’s all couched in diplomatic language, with too many words.

But the tone will encourage poor nations in Glasgow to ask exactly how their rich counterparts will fulfil their ambitions.

And that leaves the glimmer of hope for a deal at the end of this fortnight.

Roger Harrabin has been covering climate change for 35 years. The first UN climate meeting he reported from was the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992.

Boris Johnson insists "we have made some progress at this G20".

He says every nation at this weekend's summit of major economies agreed to end financial support for international, unabated coal projects by the end of this year. (Unabated coal is coal burning without the use of carbon capture and storage technology.)

However, he acknowledges the commitments were "drops in a rapidly warming ocean".

He continues: "Right now the [2015] Paris agreement and the hope that came with it is just a piece of paper, we need to fill that piece of paper with real progress."

He says the UK knows it can be done as it has lowered its greenhouse gas emissions by 44% in the last 40 years while increasing GDP by 78%.

PM Boris Johnson says unless COP26 results in real climate change action then the last summit in Paris will be remembered not as the moment humanity opened its eyes but "when it flinched and turned away".

The pledges made at the G20 summit so far are "drops in a rapidly warming ocean when we consider the challenge we've all admitted is ahead of us".

The PM says just 12 G20 members have committed to reach net zero by 2050 or earlier. We know that China, the world's largest emitter, and India, the world's third-largest emitter, are not among them, though Johnson didn't name them directly.

Barely half of G20 members have submitted more ambitious carbon-cutting plans ahead of COP, he says, and rich countries have also failed to meet the commitment to give £100bn a year to developing countries by 2020.

He says for COP26 not to fail these things must change.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is now speaking at the G20 summit in Rome. He will soon be heading to Glasgow, where the UK government is hosting the COP26 summit.

He says we need to act now to halve emissions by 2030 and keep 1.5C within reach.

"There are no compelling excuses for our procrastination," he says. "We are already seeing first-hand the devastation climate change causes from heatwaves and droughts to wild fires and hurricanes.

He says the solution lies in ditching fossil fuels and "gas-guzzling" modes of transport and harnessing the power of renewable energy.

Debbie Jackson
BBC Scotland

Glasgow’s cabbies are hoping for a boost from the city’s COP26 host status.

Asif Yousaf has been asked by his firm Glasgow Taxis to work extra hours during the summit.

“We have a contract for all the hotels,” he tells us. “They keep calling us to go back and forward to the SEC [conference venue] and the Hydro [arena].

“We have been asked to work more hours because a lot of drivers have left since the Covid pandemic. I will probably be working nine or 10 hours a day the whole way through.

“This is a very good thing for us, it will boost the economy and I want to make the most of it."

Jim Flanaghan sits at the taxi rank outside Central Station. He has just been chatting to some other drivers waiting for customers. So far, it’s been quiet. He says he is surprised at how many roads and facilities are closed in the city. He is a self-employed black cab driver and is hoping to be busy during COP26.

“There are museums closed that are nowhere near the event site. And more roads are closed than I anticipated. Next week will be the biggest test. There is the big protest march and we don’t know how that will affect our work.”

Image source, Getty Images

The UN's secretary-general says he is leaving the G20 summit in Rome with his hopes for global climate change action "unfulfilled" but "not buried"

Many see this weekend's G20 meetings - which involved the world's biggest economies - as a stepping stone to COP26, where nearly 200 countries will gather to discuss cutting carbon emissions.

A US official told reporters the G20 was about "helping build momentum" before the leaders headed to Glasgow later.

While France's President Emmanuel Macron told newspaper Journal du Dimanche that "nothing is ever written before a COP" - meaning even if G20 leaders didn't find a breakthrough, hope should not be lost for Glasgow.

Image source, Reuters

The two-week COP26 summit, which ends on 12 November, will see delegates from around 200 countries discuss how to cut emissions by 2030. What's decided here could eventually lead to serious changes to our everyday lives.

Today was mostly ceremonial, and the negotiations will begin tomorrow.

So what are the core aims of COP26 ?

• Secure global net zero by 2050 and keep warming of only 1.5C within our grasp
• Step up protection of communities and habitats under threat from climate change
• Increase financial support for vulnerable countries - with wealthier countries fulfilling their promise to deliver $100bn in climate finance per year
• Collaborate and co-operate: finalise and agree the operational detail laid out in the 2015 Paris agreement and forge stronger links between government, business and the public

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent in Delhi

Image source, Reuters

As COP26 begins, India is facing renewed pressures from wealthy countries to phase out coal and set a net zero target.

But the world’s second-largest producer and consumer of coal and the third-highest emitter of greenhouse gases is not expected to make any sweeping pledges.

Although Narendra Modi is an enthusiastic backer of clean energy and has set ambitious targets for solar and renewables, India is in no position yet to give up on coal - which accounts for 70% of its energy needs.

Instead, India might seek financial and technical assistance from rich countries to decommission coal plants and replace them with renewables.

By one estimate this will cost around $40bn (£30bn) - as much as India spends on defence.

India is also likely to focus on fulfilling goals it made six years ago under the 2015 Paris Agreement, rather than making any major new commitments.

For the developing world, climate change negotiations are a battle of attrition. So Modi will tell the world that India is committed to clean energy, but the pace and intensity of change cannot happen entirely on terms set by the rich countries.

Image source, Supplied

We've been talking a lot about the international politics of all of this. But Elizabeth Kite, a youth leader from Nuku'alofa in Tonga, explains what the debate looks like from low-lying islands in the Pacific.

The world should know that climate change is affecting every single Pacific island. We face rising sea levels and increased extreme weather like cyclones.

Most of our government buildings are moving from where they’re located right now, which is along the waterfront. They’re moving further inland to protect themselves.

That’s really hard to watch, especially because I myself live very close to the water. What am I and others who do not have land in the inner areas of Tonga supposed to do?

Some people are also already starting to move inland. But that can only work for so long because our islands are very small and very low.

I think we’d be lucky to even have 50 years left, to be honest, that’s from my personal perspective. It’s really scary because where do people go? Eventually, I think we will become climate change refugees. It’s so tragic and sad to see because we had nothing to do with causing this problem.

My main message would be to stop talking about it, stop making promises, we need to start actioning these plans.

We have two pandemics right now. We have Covid-19 and we have climate change. I don’t know why we’re not recognising climate change as a global issue.

Elizabeth Kite was speaking to George Wright.

We've got a little bit more from Italy's PM. Mario Draghi says his country will nearly triple its climate finance commitment to developing countries to $1.4bn a year for the next five years.

It's part of commitments he's announcing from the G20 group of the world's largest economies to rein in climate change.

Rich countries have pledged to give poorer countries $100bn a year but are yet to meet that goal.

Mario Draghi says: "We are proud of these results but we must remember it is only the start."

He says world leaders must now focus on implementation as "we will be judged on what we do not what we say".

At a press conference in Rome, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi says G20 countries have agreed to "continue the commitment to fight climate change for the benefit of current and future generations".

He says the world's largest economies agreed at the summit in Rome being held before they go to COP26 to "keep the 1.5C target within reach with a series of immediate actions and medium-term commitments".

According to Draghi, these include:

• An international public commitment to eliminate finance for new unabated coal by 2021
• All G20 countries commiting to net zero emissions by mid-century
• Moving "much closer" to the goal of reaching the $100bn in climate finance to support vulnerable countries

On that second point, it's been reported that the actual wording on the target date for net zero in the G20 communiqué is "by or around mid-century". That really matters because China's goal is to achieve net zero by 2060 - 10 years later than mid-century, which would be 2050.

China is the world's largest polluter.

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent in Glasgow

Image source, Getty Images

While we wait for some more clarity on what leaders in Rome have agreed - we can bring you the latest dire warnings about how our climate is already changing.

The World Meteorological Organisation is saying that extreme weather events like powerful heat waves and devastating floods are now the new normal.

The State of the Climate report for 2021 provides a snapshot of climate indicators including temperatures, extreme weather events, sea level rises and ocean conditions.

It highlights a world that is "changing before our eyes."

The 20-year temperature average from 2002 is on course to exceed 1C above pre-industrial levels for the first time.

And global sea levels rose to a new high in 2021, according to the study.

These latest figures for 2021 are being released early by the WMO to coincide with the start of the COP26 in Glasgow.

You can read more details from the report here.

Matt McGrath has been covering climate change for the past 15 years, reporting from 10 COPs along the way.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is speaking in Rome.

He's been hosting the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies, and they've been discussing climate change ahead of COP.

We'll bring you the latest on what they've agreed. We know it's been difficult for leaders to agree on wording in their final communique around when net zero should be reached.

Malawi's president has a strong message to the rich, developed nations that are yet to meet a promise to pay £100bn to poorer countries each year to deal with climate change.

"It’s not a charity act. So pay up or perish with us," Lazarus Chakwera tells BBC Africa.

As long ago as 2009, the developed world pledged that it would mobilise that sum by 2020 to help less-developed countries deal with the effects of climate change and build greener economies.

But this target has still not been achieved and the UK government, which is hosting this summit, now says it’s unlikely to be until 2023.

For many countries, this is the biggest issue to resolve - and the very poorest are demanding action in Glasgow. They say those who have the most historical responsibility for climate change should pay the most to deal with it.

Chakwera says: "When we say fulfil your pledge, it's not a matter of charity. It's a matter of paying a clean-up fee. If you have been involved in bringing the earth we call home to this state, let's clean it up, but you have to be responsible."

Image source, Getty Images

COP26 is being held at Glasgow's Scottish Events Campus (SEC), about a mile west of the city centre on the banks of the River Clyde.

The summit site has been split into a blue zone and a green zone.

The blue zone has become official UN territory for the duration of the conference and will be patrolled by armed UN officers under the highest levels of security.

It hosts the negotiations and is only open to those officially involved in the summit.

The blue zone includes The Scottish Exhibition Centre - with its five huge halls - the 3,000-seat Armadillo and the 13,000-seat Hydro arena.

On the south of the river, the Scottish Science Centre will be the heart of the green zone, which is open to the public for various ticketed events.

Image source, Reuters

Nigeria has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2030 but its huge oil sector is so important to the economy that few observers believe it will make a transition away anytime soon.

Most of its domestic electricity supply comes from natural gas, a relatively cleaner fossil fuel. But the country’s aging electric grid struggles to service its mammoth population of 200 million, forcing households and companies to turn to dirty diesel-powered generators.

The government wants to increase the take-up of solar energy but experts say it needs to do more to make this a reality. “For the next three to five years, the government should remove import duties on solar-powered batteries and inverters,” says Jubril Ade Ojo, co-founder of OneWattSolar, a green FinTech company. “It’s been done in Kenya and has worked.”

Omawumi Kola-Lawal, an environmental consultant, adds that permit costs and red tape hamper the take up of solar energy. “A lot is being done at a minuscule scale: companies selling solar-powered lamps. But if you want to do anything at a larger scale, you need a permit.”

We're continuing to go back to the some of the speeches earlier at the official COP26 opening ceremony.

The UN general assembly president told delegates the world was facing an existential crisis which it had the capacity to avert. But, he said, we are "simply not doing enough".

Abdulla Shahid, who also serves as the foreign minister of the Maldives, said: "We have had decades to argue the facts about climate change...yet we have still failed to act with the conviction or determination required."

On a more optimistic note, he argued the world was entirely capable of turning this around if leaders so chose.

"We have run out of excuses. It is time to do the right thing."

Many travellers to COP26 chose to make the journey by rail as a more environmentally friendly option - but hundreds are now left waiting at London Euston due to cancelled trains.

A tree which fell in strong winds damaged overhead wires in Northamptonshire, meaning all trains are suspended - including Avanti West Coast trains to Glasgow. Passengers are advised not to travel.

Another fallen tree in Peterborough caused delays to LNER trains to Scotland from Kings Cross. But the company says the line has now reopened with some delays expected until the end of the day.

The Financial Times' chief political correspondent Jim Pickard was among the people expecting to go to COP26, and posted a photo of the crowds gathering at Euston.

Euston said the station entrance was currently closed due to overcrowding.

We know that human activity has had an impact on our planet's climate. Our industrial development - burning fossil fuels which expel gases like carbon dioxide - has led to global average temperature increasing through a greenhouse effect known as global warming.

Scientists tell us that keeping the rise below 1.5C - compared with pre-industrial times - will avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. But we're already at least 1.1C warmer, and so radical action is needed.

In 2015, world leaders agreed on some targets as part of the Paris climate accord.

The Paris deal aimed to keep global temperatures "well below" 2C above pre-industrial times and "endeavour to limit" them even more, to 1.5C.

But we are way off track from achieving that. On current plans, the world is expected to breach the 1.5C ceiling within decades and to hit 2.7C of warming by the end of the century.

Scientists say there simply isn’t time for inaction if 1.5C is to be achieved, while some believe we’ve already left it too late.