Laura Foster
BBC correspondent in Glasgow

Isabella Villanueva Garcia is a One Young World ambassador and civil engineer from Chile working on sustainability and climate change.

She’s at COP26 as an observer - that means she’s not directly involved in the negotiations but she’s looking on and trying to influence things.

“Here is a point where different perspectives and realities are in the same place," she says of COP26.

“The time flies here. You start usually 9am or earlier with meetings then you can participate in different side events or activities that are happening all the time here. You can have thousands of events happening at the same time.”

Isobel Thomas-Horton is a Glasgow University student who also works on its sustainability team. She's another who's at the conference to observe - and keep other students in the loop.

"It's all of our world. It doesn't just belong to the politicians," she says.

"Everyday people can have everyday solutions often more so than politicians who can be quite removed."

Back at the conference, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos follows Joe Biden onto the stage and pledges $2bn (£1.47bn) through his Bezos Earth Fund for land restoration in Africa.

The American billionaire previously indicated he would make investments worth $1bn (£732m) at an event with Prince Charles on Monday.

"We must conserve what we still have, we must restore what we've lost and we must grow what we need to live without degrading the planet for future generations to come," he says.

Image source, Blue Origin

Bezos goes on to say his flight to space in July has changed his view of the world.

He says: "Looking back at Earth from up there, the atmosphere seems so thin, the world so finite and so fragile.

"Now, in this critical year and what we all know is the decisive decade, we must all stand together to protect our world."

Joao Fellet
Reporter, BBC Brasil

When activist Ivaneide Bandeira Cardozo began fighting deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon about 50 years ago, few cared about the issue, she says.

But public awareness about the importance of the rainforest, a huge carbon store that helps slow down the pace of global warming, has grown here and around the world.

It’s something I’ve seen in more than a decade covering issues related to the Amazon: Brazilians who live in cities seem to be more concerned about rising deforestation and farming in protected areas, as well as the situation of indigenous communities.

But Cardozo, who runs a charity that helps indigenous peoples in the state of Rondônia called Kanindé, says President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate change sceptic who wants to develop the rainforest, "has not been keeping up with this trend".

For her, it is not too late to reverse the destruction of the forest. It would require a change from companies, agribusinesses and governments that do not see deforestation as a problem - or, perhaps worse, even profit from it.

"Without the Amazon, the planet will probably not have climate balance and the situation tends to get worse everywhere in the world," she says.

Rebecca Henschke
Asia editor, BBC World Service

“We were once known as the lungs of world, but our ancient forests have been destroyed,” says Syukran Amin from the Pasir tribe on the island of Borneo.

The clearing of vast areas of tropical forests and carbon-rich peatland has made Indonesia one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. They’ve been cleared and then often burnt to make way for palm oil plantations, growing a product found in everything from shampoo to biscuits.

In 2015, just a few months before the world signed up to the Paris Agreement on climate change, fires raged across plantation areas in Borneo and Sumatra. I reported on them and had to sleep wearing a gas mask in order to breathe.

In just a few months the fires released emissions equivalent to those Germany produced that entire year.

Indonesia came under intense pressure to act. And in recent years the rate of deforestation has slowed and the intensity of annual fires significantly reduced.

But in September this year a ban on new palm oil concessions expired and has not been replaced. Instead a new pro-business law combined with near-record prices for palm oil globally have led many environmentalists to fear a return to widespread deforestation.

The remote region of Papua, home to Asia’s largest remaining rainforests, is the new frontier. There, Elisabeth Ndiwaen’s tribe's forests were logged and replaced with rows and rows of oil palm.

“I walk through the plantation crying, and ask myself, where are our ancestors' spirits now that our forest is gone?" she says, fighting back tears.

As we've been reporting, experts say a previous deal on deforestation in 2014 has failed to slow the loss of forests.

Here's some data from the UN showing how much forest has been lost each decade over the past 30 years:

Industries such as agriculture drive deforestation as trees are cut down to make space for crops like palm oil or cattle.

This new deal includes a number of key countries including palm oil exporter Indonesia and Brazil.

The US president says his "whole government approach" will work to:

• reduce the drivers of deforestation
• create sustainable supply chains
• pursue more sustainable commodity sourcing

Image source, Getty Images

US President Joe Biden also addressed delegates earlier and has announced up to $9bn (£6.6bn) of US funding through to 2030 "to conserve and restore our forests and mobilise billions more from our partners".

He says the US government will work to ensure the markets recognise the "true economic value of natural carbon sinks and motivate governments, land owners and stakeholders to prioritise conservation".

"The United States is going to lead by example at home, while supporting other forested nations and developing countries," he says.

This will include setting and achieving ambitious goals on carbon sinks, he adds.

A carbon sink is any reservoir - such as peatlands, or forests - that absorbs more carbon than it releases, thereby lowering the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Image source, Getty Images

Here's some more from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech earlier on deforestation.

He tells the conference that protecting and restoring the world's forests is crucial to limiting the rise in global temperatures to a maximum of 1.5C.

He calls for investment to be channelled into indigenous communities and trillions shifted towards supporting jobs. He says this is the right course for a more prosperous future for everybody.

"Let's work together not just to protect the forest but also to ensure the forest returns," he says.

Helen Briggs
Environment correspondent, Glasgow

What’s going to happen?

World leaders take to the stage for a second day. Expect a flurry of announcements before they head home tonight and hand the baton over to negotiators.

What should I look out for?

Deals on cutting methane emissions, stopping the felling of forests, kicking countries’ addiction to coal and delivering clean technology. These aren’t part of the Paris agreement, but side deals that could be one of the measures of success here in Glasgow.

How will the deforestation deal affect me?

The food we eat and what we feed to our cattle can drive deforestation thousands of miles away in tropical rainforests. As part of the forest deal, countries will pledge to make global trade in food like palm oil, soya and cocoa more sustainable.

Reasons to be cheerful?published at 10:15 Greenwich Mean Time 2 November 2021

10:15 GMT 2 November 2021

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent

Image source, Reuters

There are reasons to be cheerful about the proposed plan to limit deforestation, specifically the scale of the funding, and the key countries that are supporting the pledge.

It is also very positive that it will try to reinforce the role of indigenous people in protecting their trees. Studies have shown that protecting the rights of native communities is one of the best ways of saving forested lands.

But there are significant challenges.

Many previous plans haven’t achieved their goals. In fact, deforestation has increased since a similar pledge was launched in 2014.

There are often disputes between donors and recipients - Norway suspended funding for an Amazon fund in 2019 in an argument with Brazil’s President Bolsonaro.

There are also major questions over how a major financial pledge could be effectively policed.

How can funders verify that forests are actually being protected without spying from satellites or challenging national sovereignty in some way?

And question marks also hang over a key plank of the new plan, which is to try to remove the link to deforestation from consumer goods sold in developed countries.

One aspect is eating meat from animals, raised on imported soy grown on cleared lands.

Will governments push companies and consumers to eat less meat to save the world’s most important forests?

Image source, AFP

In more reaction to the deforestation deal, experts tell the BBC they will be holding out to hear more of the detail.

Ana Yang, executive director at Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator, who co-wrote the report Rethinking the Brazilian Amazon, external, says the deal is a "really important step" but the "devil is in the detail".

"Having Brazil signing the deal is really important because it holds a large chunk of tropical forests. But the money must be channelled to people who can make this work on the ground," Ms Yang adds.

Many people living in the Amazon, including in its urban areas, rely on the forest for their livelihoods and will need support in finding new incomes, she adds.

Georgina Rannard
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Tuntiak Katan, co-ordinator of the group Co-ordination of Indigenous Communities of the Amazon Basin, told me governments must work with indigenous groups if they want to end deforestation.

“For years we have protected our way of life and that has protected ecosystems and forests,” he explained from COP26.

Asked if he trusts this COP will deliver more than past summits, he said governments would fail if they continued to use the same methods and channels.

Indigenous communities are about 5% of the world’s population but protect around 80% of its biodiversity. They are on the frontlines of deforestation as their land and communities are cut down.

Two weeks ago Tuntiak, who belongs to the Shuar group in Ecuador, visited a river where he loved to swim as a child. Once a fast, bountiful river, it is now a stream - “it is small, small, small and I could just see stones on the dry bed".

His community has deep knowledge of nature and he says they see how climate change is altering the forest - flowers that should bloom in April come out in June.

“Without us, no money or policy is going to stop climate change,” he says.

The UK prime minister has just addressed the conference. As we'd expected, he has confirmed the deforestation deal, saying more leaders than ever have now signed up to protect our forests.

Boris Johnson namechecks China, Russia and Brazil, adding that it's not just the range of countries who've signed up that's important but also the involvement of the private sector.

He adds there's "unparalleled opportunity" for the creation of jobs.

As we've been hearing this morning, more than 100 world leaders will promise to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, in the COP26 climate summit's first major deal.

In recent years, the loss of tree cover around the world has been firmly linked to the increasingly volatile changes to the climate.

Plants and trees absorb up to a third of our CO2 emissions from the atmosphere each year.

Yet, as we fell vast swathes of primary forests around the globe, we are reducing our planet's ability to lock away, or sequester, the harmful gas that is released by burning fossil fuels.

According to the UN, an estimated 420 million hectares(one billion acres) of forest have been lost through conversion to other land uses since 1990.

However, campaigns to protect forests have had an impact during the past three decades. UN data suggests the rate of deforestation between 2015 and 2020 was an estimated 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s.

In Brazil, however, the rate of deforestation last year was at its highest level in a decade.

Campaigners blame this on President Jair Bolsonaro’s policy of allowing further agriculture and mining activities within the Amazon rainforest.

Image source, Reuters

The arrival of world leaders in Glasgow for the COP26 summit on Monday triggered a series of demonstations across the city.

• Climate activist Greta Thunberg told young protesters that change would not come from politicians at the summit but from individuals showing leadership
• The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior sailed up the River Clyde, carrying youth climate activists from Mexico, Uganda, Bangladesh and Namibia. Its crew plan to dock near the conference venue

• Protesters from Extinction Rebellion gathered at Glasgow Central Station, where they held up large eyes with signs warning the delegates that the world was watching
• In Royal Exchange Square, UK charity Oxfam organised a Scottish pipe band protest, with participants dressing up as 10 leaders from the world's "highest-emitting" countries

• A demonstration organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), calling for regime change in Iran, was held in George Square
• Tamil activists lined the south side of the River Clyde, external directly across the from COP26, waving flags to protest against Sri Lanka's prime minister
• And French demonstrators gathered on the Clyde Arc, external to accuse the French president of supporting the fossil fuel industry

Queues and croissants as leaders gatherpublished at 09:08 Greenwich Mean Time 2 November 2021

09:08 GMT 2 November 2021

Adam Fleming
Chief political correspondent

This is the last day that world leaders will be in Glasgow en masse. The UK has lined up a big announcement on stopping deforestation in much of the world by 2030.

But will there be movement on Boris Johnson's other high-profile priorities – the phasing out of petrol and diesel cars, finance for developing countries and the end of coal power?

Downing Street has defended the Prime Minister’s use of a plane to get back to London later, saying it’ll use 35% sustainable jet fuel and the carbon emissions will be offset.

COP insiders are accentuating the positive in India’s pledge yesterday to use more renewable energy, while downplaying that they’re planning to reach net zero two decades after the UK’s target of 2050.

The queues to access the venue are already building up again this morning. Foreign office minister James Cleverly has meanwhile responded to Israel’s environment minister, who complained that she was unable to attend the conference on Monday because it was not accessible for wheelchair-users. He said he would meet her today.

And thanks to the carbon counts on the menus in the cafes, delegates are discovering that a plant-based croissant has a slightly bigger carbon footprint than a bacon roll.

Monday was the first major day of COP26 and the stage was set for some of the world's leading politicians to set out their climate change credentials.

But it was perhaps the Queen who brought things most sharply into focus.

In a video message to the summit in Glasgow, the Queen urged world leaders to create a "safer, stabler future" for the planet. She told them to take the long view and "rise above the politics of the moment".

Elsewhere:

• India pledged a net-zero target for 2070 - 20 years later than the summit target
• An Israeli minister said she could not attend because the venue was not wheelchair accessible
• Naturalist Sir David Attenborough urged delegates to "turn tragedy into triumph"
• US President Joe Biden said delegates must "seize the moment" - but was later spotted resting his eyes

Image source, Getty Images

The deforestation deal has been given a cautious welcome by some who work in the field.

Prof Simon Lewis, an expert on climate and forests at University College London, said it was "good news" to have a political commitment to end deforestation by 2030 from so many countries, and significant funding to move forward.

But he told the BBC the world "has been here before" with a declaration in 2014 in New York "which failed to slow deforestation at all".

He added that this new deal did not tackle growing demand for products such as meat grown on rainforest land - which would require high levels of meat consumption in countries like the US and UK to be addressed.

Ecologist Dr Nigel Sizer called the agreement "a big deal" - but said that some will find the target of 2030 disappointing.

"We're facing a climate emergency so giving ourselves another 10 years to address this problem doesn't quite seem consistent with that," said Dr Sizer, a former president of the Rainforest Alliance.

"But maybe this is realistic and the best that they can achieve."

Read more about the deforestation deal here.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've reported this morning, more than 100 world leaders will promise to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 - in the COP26 summit's first major deal.

The commitment, with almost £14bn pledged in public and private backing, is supported by nations covering about 85% of the world's forests, including Canada, Russia, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo - and, crucially, Brazil.

But analysts warn a deal struck in 2014 "failed to slow deforestation at all".

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting COP26, is expected to call the deal a "landmark agreement to protect and restore the Earth's forests".

"These great teeming ecosystems - these cathedrals of nature - are the lungs of our planet," Johnson said in comments released by his office.

Felling trees contributes to climate change because forests absorb vast amounts of the warming gas CO2.

The Queen’s call to world leaders to create a "safer, stabler future" for the planet is being seen as one of the most powerful opening messages of COP26.

There are still concerns from some activists that what is decided at the summit will not result in decisive change.

But the UK’s environment secretary George Eustice tells BBC Breakfast: "We do have to have hope, we do have to have faith and we have to work together, otherwise it is just a message of despair.”

He pointed to more than 100 countries already committing to halt the loss of forestation by 2030 “and a lot of commitments on finance to underpin that”.