COP26 updates: Countries officially adopt Glasgow Climate Pact

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 18, was among thousands of young people demonstrating outside of COP26. 

Thunberg spoke at the Fridays for Future march, the group she founded in 2018, criticizing politicians and labeling the conference as a "failure."

"It should be obvious that we cannot solve a crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the first place," Thunberg said.

Many of the demonstrators who spoke to ABC News said they attended the rally to see Thunberg speak.

Some demonstrators said they did not trust their leaders to create real change but were encouraged to see how many other young people were fighting for climate action.

Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate, 24, also spoke at the protest, where she said Africa was experiencing some of the harshest effects from climate change. 

Nakate said she envisions a future when "the world is green again."

-ABC News' Maggie Rulli

The sense of urgency at COP26 is at an all-time high but it’s too soon to declare victory, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, said on Friday.

"Let me emphasize as strongly as I can: Job not done," Kerry told reporters at a news conference. "Job not done the day this ends."

The summit is “just the beginning” of a decade-long race to drastically cut emissions, Kerry said.

Countries cannot leave the conference and continue on as “business as usual,” he noted, adding, "I hope that will continue and translate into a goodwill that brings out a very strong decision at the end of next week."

-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a new goal to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it for less than less than $100 per metric ton. 

The "Carbon Negative Shot" is the government’s first major effort in carbon dioxide removal, a key facet of its plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, according to the DOE.

"By slashing the costs and accelerating the deployment of carbon dioxide removal — a crucial clean energy technology — we can take massive amounts of carbon pollution directly from the air and combat the climate crisis," said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm

By midcentury, carbon dioxide removal will need to be deployed at the gigaton scale. One gigaton of subsurface sequestered carbon dioxide is the equivalent of approximately 250 million vehicles driven in one year. 

The technology still requires significant investments in research and development, according to the DOE.

-ABC News' Stephanie Ebbs

The Department of Agriculture is researching initiatives to invest in more climate-friendly alternatives to traditional agriculture, Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, told ABC News.

"I was here in 2009 at Copenhagen, and at that point in time, American agriculture was not ready for this day," Vilsack told ABC News’ Maggie Rulli on Thursday. "Today they are, and that is a big difference and an important difference."

Vilsack said he understands why some farmers are reluctant to attribute changes in their land or trends in weather patterns to climate change because many are scraping to get by and can’t take on the cost of changing their operations. 

But the Department of Agriculture hopes to take away some of that burden, Vilsack said.

"There’s a tremendous opportunity here for us to make a significant impact early in this process, and we're excited at USDA to be part of part of the solution instead of part of the problem," he said.

About 24% of emissions in the U.S. come from agriculture and land use, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs