Katy Watson
BBC South America correspondent

Deforestation in Brazil may not be at the levels it was in the 1990s but under current President Jair Bolsonaro, it has soared once again.

Bolsonaro has also said he doesn’t want to give an inch more land to indigenous tribes – the land they are on is the most protected.

“When you talk about the Amazon, people think it’s just about deforestation but it’s not only that,” says Gabriel Buchalle Silva, an environmental leader and resident of Alter do Chao in Para state, which is most affected by deforestation.

He says the growth of the soya industry has damaged the landscape nearby.

“Animals suffer, communities can no longer live there because there are no fish, no animals and no water sources.”

Not only that, but residents fear the rise in illegal mining will pollute the rivers and damage the ecosystems in a region popular with tourists who want to experience the Amazon’s white sand beaches.

“Bolsonaro is our president because of lack of options at the time. If I had to rate him from 1-10, he’d be minus 1,000. He’s destroying our country.”

Helen Briggs
Environment correspondent in Glasgow

Image source, PA Media

In other news from the summit, Colombia has pledged to protect 30% of its territory for nature by the end of 2022, in what’s being seen by some as an act of bold leadership.

Many countries, including the UK, have promised to protect at least 30% of their lands and ocean by 2030, but Colombia, known for its unique flora and fauna, is going a step further.

“Carbon neutral and nature positive are two concepts that must be in the minds and hearts of every citizen,” President Duque told the summit.

Conservation charities hope the plan will raise ambition.

“We’ll need to see more bold leadership like this from other climate-critical countries if we’re to meet the +1.5C challenge,” says John Verdieck of The Nature Conservancy.

And Tom Stevens of Fauna & Flora International thinks it's a significant announcement.

“If this pledge can be met, then protecting more land can be a double-win: mitigating global warming and helping the country cope with its effects.”

Want to see inside the Glasgow venue where the climate change conference is taking place? The BBC's Science Editor David Shukman will show you around in the video below.

Laura Foster
BBC correspondent in Glasgow

The eyes of the world are on COP26 - but what is it like on the inside?

At 31, Claudia Taboada is one of the youngest negotiators at COP26.

She’s part of the delegation from the Dominican Republic and has been to COPs before, but this is the first time that she’s been so involved in what decisions are made and how.

“When I try to tell my family and friends what I’m doing here... it’s a bit like the memes. What they think I’m doing, what I think I’m doing.

“My family thinks I’m running a world government or something, but it’s actually very challenging to get a consensus on the important things.

“They [the negotiation sessions] are very intense, they take the whole day. People from all over the world just negotiating on how to solve the climate crisis.”

We're just hearing that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to hold a press conference from the summit at 17:00 GMT.

That's come from Downing Street. We'll bring you more detail as we get it.

Methane pledge good for the world and a boost for COP26published at 14:10 Greenwich Mean Time 2 November 2021

14:10 GMT 2 November 2021

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent in Glasgow

Image source, Getty Images

The speed with which the world has moved to tackle methane emissions gives real hope that world is finally waking up to the massive threat posed by warming gases.

Just last August the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that methane was responsible for a significant proportion of the 1C of warming the world has already experienced.

In September, the EU and the US brought the global pledge into being, and have persuaded some significant emitters to join the club.

The thrust is to cut emissions by 30% by 2030. The main focus in the short-term will be the fossil fuel industry. Most of the curbs can be achieved at little or no cost.

The potential benefits are huge – scientists believe it could help the world avoid 0.3C of warming by 2040.

At a time where every fraction of a degree matters, that is a major saving that could help keep the 1.5C threshold in play.

But there are some significant clouds on the horizon.

Major emitters like Russia, China and India are not part of the pledge.

All the commitments are voluntary - there is no big stick.

Despite this, most observers see the pledge as a good step for the world and a boost for the conference.

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

Next to the stage is Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He says Canada has become the first to commit to reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by 75% on 2012 levels by 2030.

Canada is a major oil and gas producer, and while we may associate methane with cows and agriculture, a large chunk of emissions is linked to energy production.

The good news, Mr Trudeau says, is that technologies to help reduce methane emissions within the industry already exist - “so we know that making large-scale reductions is feasible at low costs”.

This chart shows just how significant methane emissions due to human activities have been in causing the warming the earth is already experiencing.

As Joe Biden says, scientists believe that around 0.5C - nearly half - of the warming since the 19th Century is due to this greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide.

President Biden goes on to say the commitment on methane will make a huge difference, not just to climate change, but will also help people's general health, food supplies, will boost economies, save companies money by reducing leaks and create new jobs.

In his short address, he also spoke about specific steps the US would be taking domestically, including getting its Environmental Protection Agency and Department for Transportation to work to reduce methane losses from new and existing oil and gas pipelines.

The president added that the US would work with farmers and ranchers too, to reduce methane emissions on farms.

"This isn't just something we have to do to protect the environment for the future, it's an enormous opportunity," he said, adding that the US was eager to work with as many other countries as possible to meet this goal. More can join the more than 80 signed up, and should, he concluded.

Image source, Reuters

President Biden, addressing the conference, opens by thanking everyone who has signed this "game-changing commitment" on reducing methane emissions.

He says one of the most important things we can do is to keep 1.5 degrees in reach and reduce methane emissions "as quickly as possible".

Methane, he adds, has caused about half the warming we are experiencing today.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen - speaking in Glasgow with US President Joe Biden - says cutting back on methane emissions "is one of the most effective things we can do" to stick to a 1.5C rise in global average temperatures.

"We cannot wait for 2050, we have to cut emissions fast," she says. "It is the lowest hanging fruit."

Major sources of methane include agriculture, and leaks from oil and gas production and landfills.

She says the "greatest potential" for curbing methane levels comes from the energy sector.

She announces the global methane pledge. It involves:

• More than 80 countries
• They pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030 (based on 2020 levels)

More now on methane, as we await an announcement from the US president and other leaders on the greenhouse gas.

A UN report released earlier this year found that reducing emissions of methane is vital for tackling climate change in the short-term.

Methane is produced when living things decompose; it's also in natural gas. It persists for just a short time in the atmosphere - unlike carbon dioxide - but it is a much more potent global warming gas than CO2.

The report said that "urgent steps" were necessary in order to reduce methane if global warming is to be kept within a limit laid down in the Paris deal.

Recent data showed both CO2 and methane (CH4) in the atmosphere reached record highs last year, external.

Nathalia Passarinho
BBC Brasil

Indigenous organisations and activists who have travelled to Glasgow complain that they were not involved in the negotiations for the forest deal announced earlier by world leaders.

“This is an agreement of governments. We have not been heard," says indigenous leader Kretã Kaingang, co-ordinator of the Articulation of Brazil’s Indigenous Population.

"It involves financing for the reduction of deforestation, but in Brazil we have bills being discussed in the National Congress, supported by the government of Bolsonaro, that allows mining, deforestation and the use of indigenous lands for agricultural production.

"For us this is not good. Agreements should be built with the involvement of indigenous leaderships across Brazil. This conversation did not occur”.

For Kaingang, the international deal on forests "rewards" Bolsonaro's government, which is "destroying" the Amazon and reducing indigenous lands.

Deforestation in Brazil surged in 2020 to a 12-year high. The government says it is acting on climate change, and it has pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2028.

Image source, Getty Images

The US is set to announce measures to prevent millions of tonnes of the greenhouse gas methane from entering the atmosphere.

The measures will target methane leaking from oil and gas rigs across the US.

The main focus of efforts to curb global warming is the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted as a result of human activities such as generating power and clearing forests.

But there has been a growing focus on methane - the main ingredient in natural gas - as a way of buying extra time to tackle climate change. Although there's more CO2 in the atmosphere and it sticks around for longer, individual methane molecules have a more powerful warming effect on the atmosphere than single CO2 molecules.

We're due to hear from President Biden, who's in Glasgow for the summit, soon.

Big business has a major role to play in saving forestspublished at 12:56 Greenwich Mean Time 2 November 2021

12:56 GMT 2 November 2021

Helen Briggs
Environment correspondent in Glasgow

We’re losing forests like never before, releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the air.

In 2020, tree loss in critical tropical areas increased 12% on the previous year, releasing emissions equal to those from 570 million cars over a year.

Prof Yadvinder Malhi, an expert on rainforests at the University of Oxford, says to reach net zero we not only have to reduce deforestation to nothing but also boost existing forest cover.

“A lot of the perception is that deforestation is linked to poor farmers at forest frontiers, but most of the deforestation is actually to do with international agro-industry, whether it’s cattle ranching or soya beans in the Amazon, or palm oil in South East Asia,” he tells me.

“If we can get the big consumers and the big corporates to ensure there’s no new deforestation in their supply chains, that’s quite a good way of bringing down that type of deforestation.”

In other words, goods consumed in the global north - such as soybeans, beef and palm oil - are fuelling the destruction of the forests we have left in the global south.

And because these involve corporate supply chains, any deal must bring big business on board, something this one is trying to achieve.

Image source, Getty Images

Hollywood actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio has arrived at the COP26 conference centre.

DiCaprio - who starred in the Wolf of Wall Street and Titanic - has long advocated tackling climate change, describing Greta Thunberg as a "leader of our time" when they met in 2019.

He has donated millions to environmental organisations, became a UN climate change representative in 2014, and backed other ventures such as those producing trainers made from natural materials.

Image source, Jennifer Anderson

Police Scotland have apologised to Glasgow residents for diverting them through a park at night due to COP26.

The force closed off an area of the city when a dinner reception attended by world leaders and the Royal Family took place at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on Monday evening.

Some women have posted about their experience on social media, saying officers told them to walk through nearby Kelvingrove Park alone in the dark.

Police said that while disruption was "inevitable" the force wanted to "keep everyone safe".

Back now to the UK PM's short speech earlier announcing the deal to reduce deforestation.

Cocoa farmers should receive a fairer price for their products under the deal, says the UK PM, joking that consumers will be able to enjoy guilt-free chocolate - in carbon if not calorific terms - as a result of the plan.

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An Israeli minister who could not attend the summit on Monday - because it was not wheelchair accessible - says she hopes things will be better in the future.

Karine Elharrar told Israeli media the only options for accessing the site were to either walk or take a shuttle that wasn't suitable for her wheelchair.

UK Environment Secretary George Eustice said the incident was "deeply regrettable" and the government had apologised to Elharrar, who has muscular dystrophy.

Speaking to the BBC from inside the summit on Tuesday, Elharrar said it had been easy to get in on Tuesday and she had been invited for a meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Asked if there were any hard feelings, she said it was a "good experience" that shone a light on the need for accessibility at conferences.

Foreign Office minister James Cleverly also met Elharrar and tweeted a picture of the two of them on Tuesday morning inside COP26. He said on Monday he was "deeply disappointed" she could not access the site.

Read more on the story here.