COP26 President Alok Sharma has finished his stocktake, summing up what else will happen today:

• He says there must be more work on a key part of the Paris climate agreement - Article 6 - which is about carbon markets and how countries balance their fossil fuel use
• A closing ceremony tonight at 18:00 GMT will make all the announcements so far formal (but remember, COP26 isn't over just yet...it is supposed to end on Friday but could stretch into the weekend)
• The next draft of the summit's overarching final deal will be published overnight
• Ministers will meet again on Friday morning to discuss the latest progress (no, we are not sure either when negotiators sleep)

"The world is watching us and willing us to work together and reach consensus - we cannot afford to fail them," Sharma concludes.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Getty Images

COP26 is on track to be the most polluting climate summit of its kind, according to a report, external produced by the UK government's sustainability consultant.

It says carbon emissions are expected to reach more than double the amount pumped into the atmosphere during the last COP, in Madrid in 2019.

The report, first reported by the Scotsman newspaper, external, states the current COP is on course to emit around 102,500 tonnes of CO2e (the total for COP25 stood at 51,101), with around 60% of the emissions arising solely from international flights.

On the first day of the summit alone, around 50 private jets landed at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson was heavily criticised for taking a private plane back to London after his first visit to the summit. , external

The summary of COP26's carbon management plan notes the total includes business travel during pre-event planning, energy, waste and water use in the accommodation for all "blue zone" attendees, and operational emissions from emergency service vehicles.

The UN says COP26 is one of the largest ever with 40,000 registered participants (27,000 attended COP25), that it is a “carbon neutral” event and that any “unavoidable” emissions from the conference will be offset through the purchase of recognised offsets such as Certified Emission Reductions.

Image source, PA Media

COP26 President Alok Sharma has been telling the summit - and gathered negotiators - the weakest areas in negotiations so far.

He says he's concerned about how much work there is left to do on climate finance.

This is a crucially important part of COP26 - it's about the money promised to the developing world from developed countries to help them fight climate change.

It underpins the trust and goodwill between poorer and richer countries.

"We still see that in finance, rooms are struggling to make progress with some routine issues," Sharma said.

He urged the summit to make progress today - and said government ministers will meet again this evening about finance.

Image source, PA Media

The summit's President, UK minister Alok Sharma, says there is "still a lot more work to be done" at COP26.

But he praised the work done so far, saying the draft cover deal so far is a "significant step forwards".

He's now going to lay out the key areas he says needs more work.

We've been waiting for an event to begin that's taking stock of the summit so far.

Now COP26 President Alok Sharma is up on his feet.

We'll bring you what he says has been achieved so far - and what's left to do.

Image source, PA Media

Ceremonies were held across the UK at 11:00 GMT to mark Armistice Day - a year after they were disrupted by the pandemic.

A few moments ago, COP26 president Alok Sharma and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon took part in the two-minute silence which is held each year to mark the end of World War One in 1918.

Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Aabid Surti has helped save 20 million litres of water - one drop at a time.

The 86-year-old Indian novelist, cartoonist and artist, who set up the Drop Dead Foundation in 2007, goes around Mumbai’s Mira Road district - the neighbourhood where he lives - with a plumber, fixing leaking taps in people’s homes free of charge.

The sound of water dripping always troubled him, but he was alarmed when he read a newspaper report which said that if one drop leaked per second from a tap, it would add up to 1,000 litres a month.

“I couldn’t get this image of 1,000 bottles of water being emptied into a drain out of my head,” he said.

So, from Monday to Saturday, Surti works on his art, books and cartoons.

On Sunday mornings, he walks around knocking on doors and ringing doorbells, asking residents if they have a leaky tap in their homes. The plumber gets to work, plugging leaks in the homes of those who say yes. To those who say no, he apologises for disturbing them.

Last year, as Covid-19 spread and India went into a lockdown, his visits to residential blocks were halted.

He used the time to help the local post office and the police station spruce up their toilet facilities and, of course, fix their leaking taps.

Analysis: US oil firms fighting Biden's climate agendapublished at 10:58 Greenwich Mean Time 11 November 2021

10:58 GMT 11 November 2021

Dan Thomas
Business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

US President Joe Biden surprised many COP26 observers with his joint declaration with China to work together to limit global warming. But back at home, the president faces pushback from the oil industry as he tries to push through his climate agenda.

Biden has said he wants America to “transition away” from oil by 2050.

One of his first big moves was pausing sales of leases for drilling on public land and waterbodies last year.

Supporters of the move say the federal government currently gives away land too cheaply, which is incompatible with Biden's goal to cut US emissions in half by 2030. (The burning of oil, gas and coal from federal land accounts for 24% of the nation’s greenhouse gases.)

But the oil industry argues the pause is unlawful and will destroy jobs - there is now an injunction against the ban in 13 states.

This means the Biden administration will be forced to go ahead with a fresh lease auction on 17 November as it waits to appeal.

If the industry succeeds in permanently overturning the ban, Biden has other levers he can pull to cajole Americans towards greener energy sources.

But his initial attempts to rein in oil production have shown that many US states are deeply opposed to change - and that the transition he seeks won’t be easy.

Image source, Reuters

We've been hearing today about the surprise climate agreement announced yesterday by the US and China - the world's two biggest polluters.

Boris Johnson has just reacted to the news, calling it a "boost" during the last 48 hours of negotiations.

"I welcome the strong show of commitment from China and the US last night to step up climate action this decade and keep 1.5C in reach," he tweeted., external

"This is a boost to negotiations as we go into the final days of COP26 and continue working to deliver an ambitious outcome for the planet."

Jessica Murphy
BBC News, Toronto

Heat waves are becoming more likely and more intense because of human-induced climate change, but they have often taken a back seat when it comes to how cities prepare for extreme weather.

Yet this summer in North America, deadly, record-shattering heat waves made many cities realise they needed a plan.

“The last couple of years have been a wake-up call for people about how we need to have more imagination and think about possibilities with climate change that are outside our everyday experience," Columbia University climate scientist Radley Horton told me earlier this year when I began looking into what preparations municipalities were making for hotter temperatures.

It was a question that came up after the Canadian province of British Columbia made global headlines when hundreds of deaths were linked to an unprecedented June heat wave. What could have been done differently that might have saved lives?

Cities throughout the US and Canada are in "a wide range of readiness for heat - some are superstars and some are racing to catch up", I was told.

Unsurprisingly, hotter regions like Florida and Arizona were ahead of the curve with some innovative solutions. But big cities like New York and Philadelphia have programmes in place to make sure the most vulnerable residents are checked in on.

But many cities weren’t as ready.

The University of Toronto's Alexandra Rahr, who studies how people look at natural disasters, said that when society stopped being surprised by the climate impact of a hotter world and faced up to it, "then we can make a more sustainable future at municipal and federal levels".

Read more here about what cities are doing to prepare for the next heat wave.

Tessa Wong
BBC News

Image source, Turenscape

Yu Kongjian can remember the day he nearly died in the river.

Swollen with rain, the White Sand Creek had flooded the rice terraces in Yu's farming commune in China. Yu, just 10 then, ran excitedly to the river's edge.

Suddenly, the earth beneath his feet collapsed, sweeping him into the floodwaters in one terrifying instant. But banks of willows and reeds slowed the river's flow, allowing Yu to grab the vegetation and pull himself out.

"I am sure that if the river was like it is today, smoothened with concrete flood walls, I would have drowned," he tells the BBC.

It was a defining moment that would impact not only his life, but the rest of China as well.

Yu is now Prof Yu - one of China's most prominent urban design thinkers and dean of the prestigious Peking University's college of architecture and landscape. He is also the man behind the sponge city concept of managing floods that is being rolled out in scores of Chinese cities.

It is an idea he believes other places can adopt - even as some raise questions of whether, in the face of more extreme floods linked to climate change, sponge cities can truly work.

Robin Brant
BBC News, Beijing

China and the US have made a rare joint declaration - pledging to work together on action to try and limit global warming to 1.5C. But in China, where the middle class continues to grow, there's a huge demand on resources, with the government having to walk a tightrope between ambitious climate goals and development needs, as our correspondent reports.

The decades of economic growth at almost any cost in China are over.

Xi Jinping emphasises quality over quantity these days. He has to, because the economy is slowing down.

But the ruling Communist Party must continue to deliver on the key pledge that underpins its legitimacy: a wealthier, more advanced country.

China wants and needs to tackle pollution here - in the air, the water and the soil - because it's killing its people.

But the mammoth coal-burning and record steel-forging won't suddenly be curtailed. The“infrastructure monster”, as one real estate agent in the city of Wuzhou described it to us recently, will ease off when it's ready.

Just ask the young first-time-buyer we met. Zhong Xin, 19, doesn't think China should slow down.

“They are building a lot of apartments here but they will also plant greenery,” she said, brushing off concerns about the environment.“If they don’t build buildings the land will be wasted.”China has pledged to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2060. But it's still planning to increase the amount of coal it burns over the next five years.

Crucially it still hasn't set any specific targets on exactly when carbon emissions will peak, at what level and how quickly they will decrease after.

Image source, PA Media

We know the climate summit has been huge - but just how big? The organisers say it's on track to be one of the largest ever, with more than 40.000 registered participants.

In other figures:, external

• 95% of food served at the conference is seasonal and from the UK, with at least 80% of this coming from Scotland
• Seaweed - 84kg of it - is being used as an "entirely sustainable substitute for salt in dishes"
• 750 kg of Scottish berries were harvested in the summer and preserved using 250 kg of Scottish honey
• Also at COP26, there were 25,000 pieces of furniture, 1,124 toilets and urinals, 445 bins and 330 water coolers.

How significant is the US-China declaration?published at 09:59 Greenwich Mean Time 11 November 2021

09:59 GMT 11 November 2021

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Perhaps the most important clue as to the significance of the statement from the US and China on climate co-operation is in the last bit of the title - a joint declaration on enhancing climate action in the 2020s.

If the world wants to keep the 1.5C temperature threshold in sight, then the steps taken to limit carbon emissions in the next nine years are absolutely critical.

While China has been reluctant to take action to tackle its domestic coal emissions in the short term, this statement is a recognition of the urgency of action.

So the joint steps agreed - on methane, forests and technology transfer - are important symbolically and also potentially in emissions terms.

The agreement is also a recognition by both sides that there is a massive gap between the efforts of countries to limit emissions to date and what science says is necessary for a safer world.

Closing that gap means a strong agreement here in Glasgow.

The optics and timing of this statement, regardless of the contents, certainly give that a boost.

When we turn to the NHS for help, the last thing on most people’s minds will be the impact of our health care system on climate change.

But running a hospital, or caring for patients elsewhere, has a huge impact on the planet, with the Scottish government just announcing a commitment to achieve a net-zero NHS by 2040 at the latest., external

St John's Hospital in Livingston is among the first in the UK to use new technology to cut its carbon footprint.

Gas and air is the most popular type of pain relief in childbirth, but the Entonox mothers breathe in contains nitrous oxide - a greenhouse gas which lasts around 100 years in the atmosphere, and whose global warming potential is around 300 times greater than carbon dioxide.

But midwives in NHS Lothian are using a new machine, developed in Sweden, to destroy the nitrous oxide and convert it back into harmless gases.

Read more on this story here

Image source, Getty Images

The head of Iran’s delegation at COP26 has told the BBC his country will only commit to ratify the Paris climate agreement when all international sanctions are lifted.

Iran is one of the world’s top ten greenhouse gas emitters, yet it is one of only a handful of countries not to have ratified the Paris pact.

Iran’s emissions have soared in recent years as the impact of sanctions have seen overseas investments in renewable energy collapse.

Environmental issues are a major problem for the government, with protests over water in Khuzestan province.

The government has also violently suppressed protests about shortages brought on by climate change and poor management.

While the country’s President Ebrahm Raisi has chosen not to come to this summit in Glasgow, the Iranian delegation is here to plead for relief from the economic blockade.

“We have come here to say that Iran is a nation engaged with the whole world. We’re all part of this global village and can help each other,” the head of their delegation Ali Salajgheh told BBC News.

“When you have an economic terrorism that has blockaded us, we are now saying remove this and we can engage with the world and then rest assured that we will be here.”

Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Image source, EPA

For the past several days as the world has been debating ways and means to fight the effects of climate change in Glasgow, residents of the Indian capital, Delhi, have been waking up to grey skies and complaining of stuffy noses and itchy eyes.

The city has been named the “world’s most polluted capital” for the third straight year by a Swiss group that measures PM2.5 levels - the concentration of tiny lung-damaging particles - in the air.

Experts say prolonged exposure can cause a host of health issues, including cancer and cardiac problems.

Dust from construction sites, industrial and vehicle emissions, and weather patterns all contribute to Delhi’s pollution.

But the city’s air turns into a murky, foul-smelling cocktail of dangerous chemicals especially in the winter months, with hundreds of farmers in neighbouring states burning crop stubble and firecrackers being set off during the festival of Diwali.

A favourite pastime of many residents, including me, is to check apps that provide a reading of the air quality index.

Levels below 50 are considered "good" and under 100 "satisfactory". The day after Diwali last week, Delhi’s PM2.5 levels at many locations were deemed “hazardous” at 999, the maximum reading possible.

A few days later when the levels fell to 382, newspaper headlines said Delhi’s air quality had improved - to “very poor”.

It's not just Delhi – India is home to 22 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities and pollution kills more than a million Indians every year.

In 2019, India announced a national clean air plan to reduce air pollution in 122 cities by up to 30% in five years.

And in Glasgow, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to reduce the use of fossil fuels, increase renewable energy and cut down projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030.

But critics say cleaning up the air will require immediate and drastic measures still not being taken.

Each day at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow has been given a theme, and today the focus is on "cities, regions and built environment".

Organisers say that the events today will bring together national, regional and city level leaders, alongside the private sector, to discuss climate action.

At one of the events this morning, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish members of the Under2Coalition - a group made up of state and regional governments - will talk about what action they're taking.

Later this afternoon, ministers and mayors will also gather for a discussion on buildings.

More on the schedule here., external

Despite pledges to phase out support, governments around the world spend more than $420bn (£313bn) each year , externalsubsidising the burning of fossil fuels - which is the main cause of global warming.

Fossil fuel subsidies are measures taken by governments that artificially lower the price of coal, oil, or natural gas.

These take two forms: tax breaks or direct payments that reduce the cost of producing fossil fuels, and "consumption subsidies" to cause price cuts for consumers, such as setting fixed prices at petrol stations.

Consumption subsidies are often seen in lower-income countries - largely to help alleviate poverty through measures that can make cooking gas cheaper, or lower the cost of transport.

Iran topped the list for consumption subsidies for 2019 - according to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) , external- followed by China and India, all of whom subsidise petrol prices.

We've got more information here.

Image source, PA Media

As we mentioned in our introduction, we're now into the final 48 hours of talks at COP26 and world leaders are being urged to help get a climate deal over the line.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson attended the summit on Wednesday and urged leaders not to sit on their hands but to speak to negotiators to give them room to manoeuvre and get a deal done.

His visit came after the UK COP presidency published a first draft of a deal that could be struck in Glasgow, which urged countries to bring forward more ambitious plans in the next year for cutting emissions by 2030.

The draft also calls for long-term net zero plans and action on climate finance, as well as calls for an acceleration of phasing out coal and subsidies for fossil fuels - a first for such a UN text.

Mr Johnson, who headed back to London after his visit, faced calls from Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and shadow business secretary Ed Miliband to stay for the last days of the talks to push for an ambitious outcome.