The US president hails progress at COP26 before he and other leaders leave Glasgow
But he says it was a big mistake for China and Russia's leaders not to show up at the summit
Despite their leaders not attending, both countries have sent delegations to the event
Earlier UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "cautiously optimistic" about COP26 at the end of the two-day leaders' meeting
More than 100 countries have signed up to a global methane pledge, agreeing to cut emissions by 30% by the end of the decade
The US and EU leaders say tackling the potent greenhouse gas is crucial to keeping warming limited to 1.5C by 2100
Earlier, a plan was announced to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 but many activists are sceptical
COP26 is seen as a crucial moment if we are to tackle climate change and avoid the worst impacts of global warming
We're leaving our live coverage of COP 26 here for today.
We'll be back tomorrow morning, but in the meantime, you can find all the latest conference news here.
Today's live page was brought to you by Claudia Allen, Emma Harrison, Holly Honderich, Gary Kitchener, Marie Jackson, Dulcie Lee, Max Matza, Paul McLaren, Kevin Ponniah and Tiffany Wertheimer.
Thanks for joining us.
Image source, PA MediaIt's the end of day two of the COP26 leaders' talks. There's been a lot to take in, but it's worth it.
Tonight, world leaders are already leaving Glasgow (most likely on a private jet - and we’ve dug into their climate impact here).
They'll pass on the baton to their negotiating teams - and it’s from now that the real work begins.
Boris Johnson says he’s feeling cautiously optimistic - but said it was easy to get caught up in “exaggerated enthusiasm” and warned against “false hope”.
Let’s take a look at what happened today:
Over the next two weeks, negotiators have the tough job of convincing the UN’s 197 countries to commit to sweeping climate pledges.
Find out more about these key dealmakers here.
Tomorrow they’ll discuss how the world can fund these huge projects.
Join us then, here, on the live page.
Image source, 350 PacificKathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner is a poet and activist from the Marshall Islands
Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner is a climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, which are under immediate threat from rising sea levels. She describes her frantic life at COP26 here.
"It's quite hard to really convey exactly what it looks like on the ground - the magnitude of the work and the exhausting running from meeting to meeting.
"I think when you know why you're here, what your ultimate goal is, and what you're fighting for, it helps you maintain your momentum and balance as you deal with these complicated issues which are so physically taxing.
"Some discussions are emotionally draining too - for example, when you have to negotiate with countries that you know aren't taking your survival into account."
Read more:
In his speech before leaving Scotland, US President Joe Biden hit out at the leaders of Russia and China for not attending the COP26 conference.
So why aren't they there?
When a Kremlin spokesman last month said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would skip the climate conference, he did not give any reason why.
Dmitry Peskov did insist climate change was "one of our foreign policy's most important priorities".
Chinese officials had left open the possibility that President Xi Jinping might attend, even after they informed Boris Johnson it was unlikely.
Covid has been floated as a non-attendance reason for both leaders.
It is thought that Xi has not left his country since the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020. Russia has gone through a bad wave recently.
Whether the possible lack of a definitive success to hail at the end of the summit had something to do with it will remain unconfirmed.
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Getty ImagesNew finance has been agreed to support South Africa closing its coal mines and switching to renewable energy sources.
The country is Africa’s biggest user of coal - a very polluting energy source. President Cyril Ramaphosa says the money will help it reach goals to reduce emissions by 2030.
The partnership amounts to wealthier countries paying an emerging economy not to use fossil fuels.
Instead South Africa will be given financial assistance to develop a renewable electricity system and electric vehicles, as well as create jobs in green energy.
The UK, US, France and Germany, as well as the European Union have signed up and will contribute $8.5 billion in loans and grants.
Image source, Getty ImagesPope Francis has weighed in on the ongoing summit, issuing a message to delegates comparing the damage of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change to that wrought by a global conflict.
In the message, read in Glasgow by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Francis called for the global response to climate change to be collegial and farsighted "as in the aftermath of the Second World War".
"Now is the time to act, urgently, courageously and responsibly," he said.
Francis added that rich countries had an outstanding "ecological debt" to poorer countries because of the disproportionate use of natural resources by developed nations.
Countries with greater means must take the lead, he said.
Why can't this conference be over Zoom? Will leaders institute meat quotas? What about overpopulation?
BBC readers have many questions about COP26, and our experts have answered some of them.
Would enforcing quotas for meat consumption be efficient and feasible?
Meat eating (especially beef) has a sizeable environmental impact.
In theory, enforced quotas for meat consumption would make a difference, but there's little political appetite or support for that to happen. Instead, the focus is on encouraging behavioural change.
Using taxes to make some things more expensive would probably be a more realistic solution than trying to enforce quotas.
Since people cause climate change, what is being done to stop overpopulation?
Overpopulation isn't causing climate change. Rather, it's the excessive emission of greenhouse gases that are heating the planet up.
It is true to say the population of the planet can't keep increasing indefinitely, because there is a finite number of resources available. But excessive consumption has played a larger role in climate change than a growing global population.
Does COP26 really need 25,000 people there? Why isn't it all online?
A prep meeting for this summit was tested online in June. It did not go well.
Time-zone and technology challenges made it almost impossible for countries with limited resources - progress was restricted and decisions were put off.
As a result, many developing nations have insisted on having an in-person COP. They feel that it is far too easy for their voices to be ignored on a dodgy Zoom connection.
Read more:
Image source, ReutersJoe Biden has wrapped up his briefing and will soon head back to the US.
Trying to be upbeat, the president says the vast majority of world leaders view this conference as an opportunity to "press the restart button".
"They know that growth rests in dealing with the economy in a way that affects the whole notion of what we're going to do about climate change," he continues.
"And it a gigantic opportunity."
Image source, Getty ImagesBiden is asked again about China's role in climate change negotiations, summing it up simply: "Not showing up? Come on."
"It's a gigantic issue and they walked away. How could they do that and claim to have any leadership mantle?" he adds.
"Same thing with Russia and Putin," he continues, adding that the Russian wilderness is burning and Putin "stays mum" about it.
Biden is asked about why he is attending a climate summit while at the same time calling on Opec nations to produce more oil in order to keep prices low for American consumers.
He plays coy, saying that high fuel prices are caused by "the refusals of Russia or the Opec nations to pump more oil".
"We'll see what happens on that score sooner than later."
Asked about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the busiest US travel day of the year, he pledges that petrol prices will be lower than last year.
Biden is asked about the role that China, Russia and Saudi Arabia have played in the two days of talks so far. He's asked if he condemns their lack of involvement.
"We showed up... and by showing up we've had a profound impact on how the rest of the world is looking at the United States and its leadership role", he said.
The president added that the absence of the Chinese leader at the summit is a "big mistake".
Image source, Getty ImagesBiden hails "the passion and the power of the young people and the activists" who he says are in Glasgow "reminding us of our obligation to future generations".
He goes on to say that addressing climate change will lead to the creation of new jobs, a familiar theme of his so-called Build Back Better plan which is currently working its way through Congress.
"It's about jobs. It's about competitiveness versus complacency," he says.
"This decade we have to make significant progress," continues Biden.
He goes on to hail the methane deal reached today, saying that it will cut "half of the world's methane emissions, affecting half of the world's GDP."
But Russia, China and India - some of the top methane emitters - are not part of the US and EU-led plan.
Image source, Getty ImagesUS President Joe Biden is speaking now.
"We're preparing to wrap up another busy day in Scotland," he begins. "I think we got a lot done. We had a lot of substantive meetings."
He adds that it has been "critically important for the United States to be here".
The president says that he met several world leaders today, and told them that "the US is going to be their partner as we meet this climate crisis".
Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter in Glasgow
Image source, Getty ImagesLast night, a group of senior Biden administration officials gave a preview to reporters of what they hailed as breakthrough deals on forest preservation and methane emissions that were formally announced at COP26 on Tuesday.
All the reporters wanted to talk about, however, was the tenuous situation facing Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar spending package and the hundreds of billions of dollars in climate investment it contains.
This has been Biden’s conundrum throughout his foreign trip. He’s tried to broker deals, tout successes and promote his presidency on the world stage, but domestic troubles keep crowding their way in.
Even his much-touted methane-emissions actions won’t escape the domestic meat-grinder. His proposed regulations on oil and gas drilling and pipelines are sure to face lawsuits once they’re implemented. Given the current conservative disposition of the US judicial system, including the US Supreme Court, their prospects are uncertain.
This overseas trip has tested Biden’s endurance, and strains have occasionally shown through – whether it was his choking up while speaking about his late son during Sunday’s unusually short press conference or appearing to nod off during the opening sessions of COP26 on Monday.
There will be no time to rest when he returns to Washington later tonight, however. If he wants to rescue his domestic legislative agenda – and its historic investments in environmental programmes – he has a daunting task ahead.
COP26: President Biden's motorcade leaves hotel near Edinburgh
Next up is... or should be, Joe Biden.
The US president is scheduled to give a press briefing fairly soon and we'll cover it here.
Earlier, onlookers in Scotland were transfixed by his 21-strong motorcade. The huge convoy, including Biden's armoured car nicknamed "The Beast", was spotted leaving a hotel in Edinburgh on its way to the summit in Glasgow.
A fleet of police and Secret Service vehicles accompanied the president as he travelled along side streets and on to the M8 motorway.
Read our piece to find out more about how the president gets about and who he takes with him.
Image source, Getty ImagesHumpback whales migrate along the Latin American coast in the Pacific each year
The president of Costa Rica has told the BBC that a meeting of four of Latin America's Pacific countries has agreed a regional plan to create a conservation area in the ocean.
Carlos Alvarado Quesada told BBC reporters in Glasgow that the regional pledge by Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador was precisely the kind of concrete deal that needed to come out of the summit.
However, the president added that the initiative - which he said would help protect biodiversity and combat climate change - would also need financial support from developed nations to be sustainable.
Quesada also welcomed the COP26 commitment to reforestation, highlighting Costa Rica's success at having achieved 50% forest cover over the past decades.
Image source, Getty ImagesIf you’re just joining us - UK PM Boris Johnson has been speaking in Glasgow. Yes again. This one was to wrap up two days of leaders' talks, ahead of the hard slog for the negotiators left behind.
After having a rather gloomy message in the lead up to COP26, Johnson said he was now "cautiously optimistic" about progress being made, but warned there was a "very long way to go".
Here's a wash-up of his briefing:
Funding for vulnerable nations: Johnson admitted that a key pledge to give $100bn in climate funding to poorer and more vulnerable nations would still miss its original deadline, but said it would be there for 2023, adding that “further action from countries around the world" was needed.
Talking footy: Ahead of COP the PM said the world was 5-1 down against climate change. Today he said "We have pulled back a goal or two and we may be able to pull this back at extra time.”
Sticking with the football analogy, Sky's Beth Rigby asked whether the "sad reality is, if China is not on the pitch, Team World is not going to be able to equalise. That is the elephant in the room, isn't it?"
Johnson said President Xi (and President Putin) had decided not to attend the Glasgow summit on pandemic grounds, adding "you've got to respect that".
But he added the Chinese team was "very high level" with a "fantastic power to make changes" and President Xi's absence "doesn't mean the Chinese are not engaging”, citing its pledge to meet the net zero target by 2060 or earlier.
Fossil fuels: Johnson said "one thing that gives me optimism - for the countries who find it most difficult to transition from fossil fuels - we're starting to form those coalitions to help them".
Doomsday clock: Mr Johnson ended by saying the UK would be watching COP to make sure there were "no U-turns or sliding back".
"The clock on the doomsday device is still ticking but we have a bomb disposal team on site - they are starting to cut wires."
He said he hoped they were the right ones.
Tick Tock.
Glenn Campbell
BBC Scotland Political Editor
Image source, Getty ImagesThe UN Secretary General could barely have been more hard-hitting when he told delegates on Monday that "we are digging our own graves" with more gas and oil explorations.
Now Antonio Guterres says it will be “very difficult” for COP26 to secure the commitments needed to limit global temperature increases to 1.5C.
He warns there is a “serious problem of trust” between developed and developing countries and that this relationship is the biggest problem the negotiations face.
However, Guterres says he does not think the potential for a new coal mine in Cumbria or new oil and gas developments elsewhere in the UK “undermines entirely” the UK’s leadership on climate change.
He said that, while it was not for him to decide on the proposed Cambo oil field to the west of the Shetland Isles, it was the case that “we don’t need more oil and gas”.
Image source, Getty ImagesAs day two wraps up and leaders begin getting on their planes to head home, let's take a look at some of the announcements (or non-announcements) over the past 48 hours that could affect the future of our planet: