Delegates at the COP26 summit are hammering away at a final agreement that needs to be signed off by nearly 200 countries
But COP26 President Alok Sharma warns that "time is running out" and that there needs to be movement on climate finance for poorer countries
The issue is a sore point for many countries who did little to cause global warming
The US and China agree to work together together to try and keep warming limited to 1.5C, in a boost for the talks
Meanwhile a small group of countries announce an alliance to phase out oil and gas production - but the UK does not join
A BBC meteorologist has also been answering your questions on how climate change will affect the weather
That's it from us for today. We'll have another COP26 live page for you tomorrow.
The writers for the page today were Francesca Gillett, Alex Therrien, Georgina Rannard, Bryn Palmer, Patrick Jackson, Mary O'Connor and Adam Durbin.
The page was edited by Rob Corp.
Image source, PASharma warned "time is running out" to secure a deal at COP26
We'll soon be bringing our COP26 live page to a pause for today. But before we do, here is a round-up of what has happened.
Image source, Getty ImagesLord Prescott at COP26
One of the grandees of the UK's opposition Labour Party, Lord Prescott, who was once dubbed "two Jags" for having two official Jaguars, has revealed he no longer has a motor vehicle.
The former deputy prime minister to Tony Blair was also criticised while in government for using a car to drive 200yds (183m).
But his son David told the BBC he had now given up cars for good.
And writing in the Times, , externalLord Prescott said he was making his "own small contribution to cutting carbon emissions".
"I am now Zero Jags - selling a car or eating fish and chips with a lower carbon footprint alone won't save the planet, but as the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, 'Great acts are made up of small deeds,'" he wrote.
In 1997, John Prescott was a lead EU negotiator at the Kyoto climate conference which produced the first global agreement on cutting carbon emissions.
He has been visiting the climate talks in Glasgow to promote his work with the University of Hull in cutting carbon emissions around the Humber estuary.
Transport is responsible for almost a quarter of carbon dioxide global emissions, external.
While intense negotiations continue inside the summit conference venue, five more climate protesters have been arrested in Glasgow.
The activists from environmental group Scientist Rebellion glued themselves to the ground in front of the offices of energy company Scottish Power.
The group staged the action against what they say is "greenwashing" by the company, which is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola.
The protesters, most of whom were Spanish, claim Iberdrola has continued to burn fossil fuels around the world and blocked action on climate change.
Scottish Power is one of the principle partners for COP26. The company says they are "working on a better, greener future to help fight climate change", with tariffs including "100% green electricity from our windfarms" and "zero CO2 emissions on your electricity".
Meanwhile, a separate group of climate activists deflated the tyres of around 60 sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in one of Glasgow's most affluent neighbourhoods in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The group placed satirical police fines on the cars' windscreens in the city's West End explaining their action against the 4x4 cars, but no tyres were damaged in the action.
Darin Graham, BBC News
Coal will remain a part of South Africa's energy supply for decades as it is so tied to its economy, a minister has told the BBC.
Coal accounts for almost 90% of the country's electricity and the industry employs more than 80,000 workers. South Africa is currently a major emitter of greenhouse gases because of its coal use.
“There has been miscommunication in the public domain, that coal will overnight no longer be part of our energy mix,” Barbara Creecy, minister of forestry and fisheries and environmental affairs, said at COP26.
“That is not the case. We do envisage that coal will remain part of our energy mix for decades to come."
It was announced last week that South Africa would receive around $8.5bn (£6.3bn) from France, Germany, the UK, the US and the EU to help it move away from its heavy reliance on coal.
Creecy says there are “major issues” with energy access and security in the country.
Quote MessageWe are experiencing load shedding. What we want to do is to increase the renewable component, and we want to ensure that that process happens in a manner that is just and protects those communities that will be most affected.
Barbara Creecy
Image source, Getty ImagesBangladeshi climate scientist Saleemul Huq is at COP26 to advise the world's least developed countries. In the latest in a series of first-person accounts, he describes the mood as the UN climate conference nears its conclusion.
This is my 26th COP - I've actually been to every single one. I'm not here as a negotiator but as an adviser to the group of Least Developed Countries, external - the 46 countries who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
My own country is badly affected - there are nearly 170 million people in Bangladesh living on less than 150,000 square kilometres on the delta of two of the world's biggest rivers, the Ganges and Brahmaputra. Because of this, vast numbers of people are extremely vulnerable.
I originally started advising the group of Least Developed Countries on the issue of adaptation to climate change, but now that we're suffering the impacts of climate change we're no longer simply able to adapt to it.
So, more recently, I've been advising them on a new and emerging topic - loss and damage from climate change. It's a highly politically contentious issue - rich countries don't like talking about it because they feel it will open them up to liability and compensation claims.
Yesterday, we saw the first draft of the agreement.
There's a great deal of disappointment in the lack of ambition in that draft, but in calling for more support for developing countries and recognising that more finance is needed, I think they've done something quite positive on loss and damage.
James FitzGerald
BBC Minute
Image source, Getty ImagesUS city Atlanta has much higher emissions than similar sized cities in Europe because its residents must drive
The world’s cities are thought to cause around three-quarters of all emissions of carbon dioxide - a greenhouse gas which causes global warming - so they have a lot to answer for at COP26.
But they could play a key role in the fight against climate change, explains Sowmya Parthasarathy, an architect and urban planner for the global firm Arup.
Urban areas contain more than half of the world’s population - but they take up only a tiny fraction of Earth’s total land area.
She tells BBC Minute: "So, if people in cities can use other resources like energy and water as efficiently as they use land, they can make a massive difference."
Image source, Sowmya ParthasarathySowmya Parthasarathy
Cars are a major source of greenhouse emissions which cause global warming and Sowmya reckons cities should be friendlier to walkers and cyclists, as well as improve their public transport options.
“Compact and walkable cities are highly sustainable,” she adds.
Urban areas can be made more green by making more room for parks and trees and even planting on rooftops, says Sowmya.
She also points to construction waste as another problem that needs tackling.
“We must reuse buildings. We must not demolish them without a real reason. And we must make them much more energy-efficient than they are right now," Sowmya explains.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Scottish government is set to join a new alliance aimed at phasing out fossil fuels such as oil and gas
On the day her Scottish government pledged to increase funding for climate justice by 50%, including doubling its £1m contribution to a loss and damage fund to help poorer nations, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on other world leaders to “step up” to secure a positive outcome for COP26.
The Scottish government had already committed to doubling its climate justice fund to £24m in the current parliament, and has now decided to increase it by a further £12m as part of ongoing negotiations.
“If Scotland can up its contribution, there is no good reason why the larger, developed countries around the negotiating table cannot do so too,” Ms Sturgeon said.
The Scottish government is also in talks to join the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, which could see the country join Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Greenland, Ireland, Québec, Sweden and Wales in progressing moves to phase out fossil fuels.
Scottish Greens climate spokesperson Mark Ruskell said it was a “shame” Scotland had not signed up on day one.
Quote Message"Determining how much fossil fuels Scotland needs and how much we can afford to burn under the Paris Agreement should provide a starting point to draw a line under future oil and gas development in Scotland."
Mark Ruskell, Scottish Greens climate spokesperson
Image source, ReutersAs long as governments continue to funnel trillions of dollars of investment into oil, gas and coal projects, promises to cut carbon emissions "ring hollow", says UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.
Mr Guterres told the COP26 summit on Thursday that the announcements made so far after nearly two weeks of negotiations were encouraging, but "far from enough".
He called on governments "to pick up the pace and show the necessary ambition" to confront the climate crisis, adding they "cannot settle for the lowest common denominator".
The summit is trying to advance global efforts to keep alive the Paris climate agreement of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C this century. Latest projections are for a rise of 2.7C.
Quote MessageEvery country, every city, every company, every financial institution must radically, credibly and verifiably reduce their emissions and decarbonise their portfolios starting now."
Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General
Various pressure groups have been reacting to the launch of a new alliance to push progress on phasing out oil and gas - the production and use of which contributes so much to global warming.
Led by Denmark and Costa Rica, only a small group of countries and regions have so far signed up.
The UK is not among them.
Quote MessageThe launch of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA) is a turning point. The creation of this alliance puts to shame claims of climate leadership among countries like the United Kingdom, Norway, the United States, and Canada, all of which have yet to answer this simple question: Where is your plan to stop producing the fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis?
Romain Ioualalen, Global Policy Campaign Manager at Oil Change International
Quote MessageCosta Rica and Denmark and those that have joined them in the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance are changing the game. They’re authoring a new definition of climate leadership, one that no longer allows countries to hide behind flashy pledges while continuing to pump out coal, oil and gas."
Catherine Abreu, Executive Director of Destination Zero
Quote MessageWe welcome BOGA putting the focus on fossil fuel phase-out, but are concerned that big oil and gas producing nations seem reluctant even to sign up to BOGA’s not very challenging commitment. That’s not good enough.”
Sara Shaw, Climate Justice & Energy Program Coordinator, Friends of the Earth International
Chris Morris
BBC Reality Check
The Paris Agreement only says you have to review your carbon-cutting pledges every five years. What they are trying to write into this document is an agreement that you have to review, and if necessary update, them every year.
If they are trying to make nearly 50% cuts by the end of the decade, a five-year review is not really enough - it has to be annual.
Different countries come into this with different political systems – but climate finance is THE issue for many developing countries, to help them adapt to climate change and make their economies greener in the future.
We know there was a promise made way back in 2009 of $100bn (£74bn) a year, from the rich world to poorer countries, by 2020 and that was not met.
We think with the pledges made in recent days that figure may be up to about $96bn by the end of 2022, but $100bn won't be met by 2023 in all likelihood.
But a lot more will be needed anyway. There is some ambitious language in the draft document as they look for a new finance goal – one of the options is a target of $1.3 trillion of climate finance every year, by 2030.
I don’t know if that language will remain in the final document but that is the kind of money needed, according to climate experts, if you are going to get every country in the world – some of them with desperately little money, especially after the Covid pandemic - to re-engineer their countries and make them ready for a very different world.
Georgina Rannard
BBC News
Image source, Getty ImagesHeavy drought is affecting Latin America's Pantanal wetlands - the world's largest tropical wetlands
What do climate activists around the world make of the US-China declaration to work together to limit global warming to 1.5C?
I spoke to Iago Hairon who is based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with Open Society Foundations.
Many communities in Latin America are threatened by climate change with increased risk of wildfires from rising temperatures, drought and rising sea levels in coastal areas.
He said the US-China declaration boosted COP26, but it was important to be realistic.
"China and US are competing on several issues, like 5G, and I’m not really sure how they will truly co-operate on climate in the coming months," Hairon explained.
"And bilateral agreements [deals between two countries] are necessary, but we always should pay attention on how these two superpowers - and main polluters - are sticking to UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] parameters," he said, referring to the commitments countries have made at climate summits to tackle climate change.
What is essential at COP26, he said, is securing financial support to help developing countries transition to clean energy and prepare to withstand the effects of global warming.
Susan Powell
BBC Meteorologist
Image source, AFPMonsoon rain this week in Chennai, India
Our final question on climate and weather comes from John Sitek, 63, in Florida: "If meteorologists can't predict the weather tomorrow, for example saying there is a 50% chance of rain which is really no prediction at all, how can we rely on these climate change predictions to be even remotely accurate?"
This is a very fair question!
Day-to-day forecasts can be difficult to get correct in certain scenarios. This is particularly true of showers where you can see a rainstorm develop in one area and nothing just down the road. Hence the forecast is given as a percentage probability.
On a global scale a single shower is a very small-scale event. When we increase the size of the area we are looking at we can increase our confidence in the weather phenomenon being present. For example, if we considered the whole state of Florida for the risk of showers in a certain weather pattern we could probably get into the high 90s for showers present.
Climate change is a global-scale phenomenon and, with the benefit of decades of observations to feed into climate modelling, the confidence in predictions increases.
These do, though, remain models. There will be best and worst-case scenarios, and the most likely outcomes will fall somewhere between the two. Whilst we can’t have absolute certainty, we can use these predictions to enable us to prepare and adapt.
How we know climate change is happening and caused by humans
Susan Powell
BBC Meteorologist
Image source, Getty ImagesProtective sand bags in the Maldives, one of the world's lowest-lying countries
We have been answering your questions about climate change and weather today. This one comes from Dignity Gabriel, 22, in Lagos, Nigeria: "How is climate change affecting the ocean?"
Our oceans are being massively affected by climate change.
As the Earth’s atmosphere has changed post-industrialisation, the ocean has acted to absorb 93% of the extra energy from the enhanced greenhouse effect, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Sea surface temperatures around the world have been consistently higher in the last three decades than since reliable observations began in the late 1800s.
Warming is now being observed at depths of 1,000m (3,280ft). This is changing the way the ocean behaves. Currents are being disrupted and greater areas with depleted oxygen are being observed. Marine species are consequently being displaced, their abundance and diversity all shifting.
And as the ocean mops up CO2 it turns the water increasingly acidic. Higher acidity affects the balance of minerals in the water, which can make it more difficult for certain marine animals to build their protective skeletons or shells. Such species and their ecosystems will become increasingly vulnerable.
Sea levels are rising - warming leads to bodies of water expanding, and glacial melt adds to ocean volumes. Shorelines already look very different in some parts of the world as a result. Coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion are big factors in leading to habitat destruction. Coastal flooding will have increasing impacts on where we can build our homes.
The pressure is mounting for governments to strike a deal before COP26 ends on Friday. Here's what we learnt from summit President Alok Sharma who was speaking in the last hour:
Sadiq Khan believes city and regional leaders are better placed to know how best to spend funding from central government than national politicians
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says he is less optimistic about a positive outcome from COP26 than a week ago because “our national leaders haven’t reached the agreements they need to keep 1.5 alive”.
Mr Khan told BBC News that national governments need to follow the “urgency” shown by cities – London and Glasgow have both set net zero targets of 2030 – rather than making pledges for “20, 30 years' time”.
Cities in the global north have already seen the effects of climate change, he said, pointing to recent flooding in London, New York and Germany, wildfires in Greece and Australia, and the displacement of people to large cities.
“It is frustrating for us to see our national leaders kicking these really urgent cans down the road,” said Mr Khan, who is chair of C40 cities, a global network of almost 100 large cities committed to addressing climate change.
The group has announced a $1bn finance package for zero-emission buses, external in major cities in Latin America including Rio, Santiago and Buenos Aires, to help address climate inequality in the global south.
Quote MessageThis is a good example of us leveraging private sector money and the power of private manufacturers. The economies of scale mean the cost of each bus comes down, and there is less carbon being emitted across Latin America. If we as cities can do this, why can’t national governments?”
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London
Image source, UNFCCThe final question comes from a journalist from the Netherlands, who asks Alok Sharma about the timeline of publishing the text of any agreement.
The journalist says that yesterday Sharma had said the near-final text would be ready by now - but it's not. Is he trying to create drama which is needed to push talks further tomorrow?
"People sometimes describe me as no drama Sharma," the COP26 president replies.
He says he's trying to push this process forward. "Quite a lot has been achieved... there is a real spirit of co-operation here as well, but we are still some way away from finalising those very critical issues that have been outstanding.
"I don't think we can over-emphasise how difficult this is. If it was easy, we would have resolved this over the past six years. But we haven't.
"And that's why I'm ensuring we use every moment between now and the end of this COP... We will keep going."
A journalist from Shanghai Media Group asks about the US-China declaration on increasing co-operation on climate change.
The journalist asks Sharma what substantial progress he would like to see from the two countries.
Sharma says he welcomes the joint declaration, but he is looking for a negotiated agreement among almost 200 countries.
He says an ambitious agreement is one that keeps 1.5C within reach.
"That is what we continue to push for - an ambitious outcome at COP26. Frankly, that's what the world deserves."
Channel 4 asks whether the activists are right to say that a text that doesn't commit to phasing out fossil fuels shows the summit is meaningless?
Sharma says the draft agreement "does reflect the issue on fossil fuels" - but "let's see what emerges" in the next text.
Channel 4 also asks the UK COP president how damaging is the UK's refusal to join Denmark, Costa Rica, France and Wales in their pledge to end oil and gas. (Earlier, the countries launched an alliance promising to stop oil and gas production).
Sharma replies that the UK's come "a very long way in terms of our transition to clean energy".
"We now actually have the biggest offshore wind sector in the world, literally the biggest in the world, and the aim is to quadruple that by 2030 - and I think it may be possible to go even beyond that."
He adds that the use of oil and gas has diminished in the energy sector in the UK. "It's worth recognising that we are recognised around the world as a leader in clean energy transition."
Image source, UNFCCRobert Peston from ITV in the UK asks what hope Sharma has that countries will, within a year, cut emissions enough to keep alive the aim of limiting warming to 1.5C.
Sharma says he believes the draft pact was "ambitious" and if the proposals were adopted as intended that "we would be able to say with credibility that we have kept 1.5C within reach".
He says the draft makes clear that countries should come back again ahead of a stock take in 2023.
Archie Young, lead negotiator for the UK, says keeping 1.5C alive requires a whole series of actions and elements from COP.
He says part of this is the nationally-determined contributions and net zero commitments that were made before COP.