COP26 updates: Countries officially adopt Glasgow Climate Pact

Deep divisions still remained about the future of fossil fuels.

Last Updated: November 14, 2021, 11:35 AM EST

Leaders from nearly every country in the world have converged upon Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that experts are touting as the most important environmental summit in history.

The conference, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was designed as the check-in for the progress countries are making after entering the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, a value that would be disastrous to exceed, according to climate scientists. More ambitious efforts aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Not one country is going into COP26 on track to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to experts. They will need to work together to find collective solutions that will drastically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

"We need to move from commitments into action," Jim Harmon, chairman of the World Resources Institute, told ABC News. "The path to a better future is still possible, but time is running out."

All eyes will be on the biggest emitters: China, the U.S. and India. While China is responsible for about 26% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, more than all other developed countries combined, the cumulative emissions from the U.S. over the past century are likely twice that of China's, David Sandalow, a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.

Nov 03, 2021, 1:28 PM EDT

Climate-conscious stars spotted at conference

Hollywood and fashion royalty met with actual royalty at COP26. 

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and designer Stella McCartney were seen chatting with Britain’s Prince Charles at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, Scotland, on Wednesday. 

PHOTO: Britain's Prince Charles, center, speaks with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, left, and designer Stella McCartney, right, while visiting a fashion installation by the McCartney, during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 3, 2021.
Britain's Prince Charles, center, speaks with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, left, and designer Stella McCartney, right, while visiting a fashion installation by the McCartney at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 3, 2021.
Owen Humphreys/Pool via AP

Prince Charles was at the event to award the "Terra Carta Seal" to corporate leaders. The award recognizes companies that have documented plans to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2035 or achieve net-zero by 2050.

DiCaprio has long been an environmental activist, and McCartney strives to use sustainable materials for her fashion line. The garden at Highgrove House, Prince Charles’ home in Gloucestershire, England, was one of the first to reincorporate organic practices in the 1980s.

Nov 03, 2021, 11:25 AM EDT

Island nation, facing existential threat, finds new ways to survive

The Maldives, an archipelago made up of over 1,100 coral islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, is the lowest lying nation in the world. Therefore, sea level rise caused by global climate change is an existential threat to the island nation.

"Our islands are slowly being inundated by the sea, one by one," Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the president of the Maldives, told the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP26, earlier this week. "If we do not reverse this trend, the Maldives will cease to exist by the end of this century."

Climate change is causing sea levels to rise at alarming rates.
ABC News

At the current rate of global warming, almost 80% of the Maldives could become uninhabitable by 2050, according to multiple reports from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Read more here.

Nov 03, 2021, 7:33 AM EDT

New climate targets announced for sports worldwide

The United Nations has announced a number of ambitious emissions reduction targets as part of its Sports for Climate Action Framework.

The goals include reaching net zero by 2040 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.

Organizations such as the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, Athletics Kenya, BBC Sport, the Premier League, Formula E and Munster Rugby have signed up for the new targets. 

The Olympic Rings are displayed on July 9, 2021 in Tokyo.
Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images, FILE

Moreover, signatories will submit plans on how to implement these targets as well as report on overall progress each year.  

"Four years since we launched the Sports for Climate Action Framework, more than 280 sports organizations have committed to the overarching objectives of aligning sport with the goals of the Paris Agreement," U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said Wednesday.

-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs

Nov 02, 2021, 3:59 PM EDT

'America showed up,' Biden says of time at summit

Biden said the U.S. was able to make "real progress" at COP26 on methane reduction and reforestation strategies, including convincing countries on “the sideline” to commit to ambitious goals in those arenas as well. 

Biden criticized China, the world’s biggest emitter, and Russia for failing to show up in Glasgow. 

"The rest of the world is going to look to China and say...are they providing?" Biden said. "And they've lost the ability to influence people around the world and all the people here at COP."

When asked by a reporter how he would respond to "skeptical" and "angry" protesters at the conference, Biden said, “I think anyone who cares about the environment should be worried.”

"There’s a reason for people to be worried," he said. "I’m worried."

President Joe Biden addresses a press conference at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Nov. 2, 2021.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Biden continued, "But I’m optimistic….what I feel is that the populations of each of our countries have a different perspective that they did at COP25."

Biden added that people are starting to recognize the disasters that have been exacerbated by climate change, such as deadly flooding from hurricanes and wildfires burning in the western U.S., which has been experiencing a megadrought.

"I think there’s a whole different attitude," Biden said.

-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky

Related Topics