COP26 updates: Countries officially adopt Glasgow Climate Pact

During his speech at Monday's COP26 events, former President Barack Obama shined a spotlight on the upcoming midterm elections and called upon young Americans to consider climate when deciding how to vote.

“Saving the planet isn’t a partisan issue,” Obama said, frustrated over the divided government.

Obama endorsed President Joe Biden’s "Build Back Better" bill and drew a comparison to when “one of our two major parties” made climate change a partisan issue back during his tenure.

On climate change, Obama harkened back to the Paris Agreement, saying, “We have not done nearly enough to address the crisis.”

He called for countries to push for ambitious action and acknowledged that while older generations have failed the young, they “can’t afford hopelessness.”

Addressing the youth participating in protests outside COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, the former president encouraged them to get more involved to deal with their anxiety over climate change.

“Protests are necessary to raise awareness. Hashtag campaigns can spread awareness,” Obama said. “But to build the broad-based coalitions necessary for bold action, we have to persuade people who either currently don't agree with us or are indifferent to the issue.”

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