COP26 updates: Countries officially adopt Glasgow Climate Pact

Deep divisions still remained about the future of fossil fuels.

ByJulia Jacobo, Ayushi Agarwal, and Meredith Deliso
Last Updated: November 4, 2021, 10:33 AM EDT

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.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the conference is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 04, 2021, 10:33 AM EDT

Annual horizon scan summarizes new climate research insights

Future Earth, Earth League and the World Climate Research Programme released their annual climate report today at COP26 summarizing the latest climate change data and research.

The 10 New Insights in Climate Science 2021 report was launched at a press conference with UNFCC executive secretary Patricia Espinosa and three of the report’s authors.

“We hope that the work presented in this report will drive the deep transformations we desperately need,” said Wendy Broadgate, Future Earth’s Global Hub director.

The goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is only attainable with “immediate and drastic” global climate action, which must be “just,” the report said.

The dangers of megafires and methane and nitrous oxide emissions were among the other key insights from the report.

Nov 04, 2021, 9:48 AM EDT

Recycling law targets packaging waste in bid to save taxpayers and climate

Workers collect the days recycled trash at a city recycling center processing plant, April 11, 2019, in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images, FILE

A first-of-its-kind law will require manufacturers to cover the cost of recycling the packaging they create.

"I like to call it recycling reform," Maine state representative Nicole Grohowski, who sponsored the law, told ABC News in an interview. "It makes the producers of packaging waste responsible for what happens to that waste at the end of its lifespan."

Read more here.

-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer, Sarah Herndon and Bobby Gehlen

Nov 04, 2021, 8:10 AM EDT

US needs to 'get in the game' on clean energy transitions, energy secretary say

The U.S. needs to lead by example in the clean energy transition and leaders should jump at the chance to scale up new technology to stay competitive on the global stage, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told ABC News.

As the "richest country in the world" and one of the biggest polluters, it will be incumbent upon Americans to "do our part," Granholm told ABC News’ Maggie Rulli on Thursday. 

"If you're a businessperson, you want to be able to get in the game," Granholm said. "And in the United States, we don't want our economic competitors getting those jobs, getting those businesses. We want to be able to create it in the United States for our people to work."

U.S Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm addresses a session at the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 4, 2021.
Daniel Leal-olivas/AFP via Getty Images

Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, said governors from states that have relied heavily on one fossil fuel industry, such as coal or oil and gas, should prioritize creating clean energy jobs for workers, adding that there are opportunities in clean energy, such as geothermal power, that use the same set of skills.

"If you're a governor, you don't want people moving to a new state," she said. "They want to be able to create those opportunities inside of your state, and every single state in the United States has something to offer as a competitive advantage in clean energy."

-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs and Maggie Rulli

Nov 04, 2021, 7:34 AM EDT

Dozens of countries promise to phase out coal

A coalition of 190 countries and organizations have agreed to commit to the end of coal power at COP26, a potentially major step toward limiting global temperature increases. 

Major coal-using countries such as Poland and Vietnam have committed to phasing out the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel for the first time, the U.K. government announced Wednesday night. 

A view of Drax Power Station on March 2, 2020 in Selby, England.
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images, FILE

The coalition has committed to ending all investment in new coal power generation both domestically and internationally, rapidly scale up deployment of clean power generation, phase out coal power for major economies in the 2030s and the rest of the world by the 2040s and make a transition away from coal power in a way that benefits workers and communities.

China, Japan and Korea, the three largest public financiers of goal, have already committed to ending overseas finance for goal generation by the end of 2021.

-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs

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