COP26 updates: Countries officially adopt Glasgow Climate Pact
Deep divisions still remained about the future of fossil fuels.
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:
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Biden emphasizes urgency to fight climate change: 'The science is clear'
President Joe Biden addressed leaders at the COP26 conference, declaring that countries need to act and act now.
"It’s simple," the president said. "Will we act? Will we do what is necessary? Will we seize the enormous opportunity before us? Will we, or will we condemn future generations to suffer?"
The upcoming decade will determine whether collective transformative action around the globe will be enough to curb global warming, Biden said.
"We only have a brief window left before us to raise our ambitions," Biden said, adding that the time frame is "rapidly narrowing."
The effects of the pandemic made "painfully clear" that "no nation can wall itself from borderless threats," Biden said, adding that no one can escape the worse consequences of climate change.
But it is in the self-interest of every country to create green energy and healthier ecosystems for the planet, he said.
"We’re standing at an inflection point in world history," Biden said.
Biden stated that the U.S. will be able to meet its ambitious target to reduce emissions by 50% to 52% by 2030 but called on the rest of the world to do the same.
"We can do this, so let’s get to work," the president said.
Greta Thunberg leads demonstrations in Glasgow
Youth climate activist Greta Thunberg has been making has been making her way around the COP26 summit.
Thunberg was seen meeting with Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and also took part in a student-led climate demonstration, leading the rally near the COP26 venue.
-ABC News’ Maggie Rulli
Video spotlights climate change's threat to life
A video presented in front of all COP26 attendees during the opening session featured clips showing the detrimental and fatal effects of climate change in the form of typhoons, avalanches and wildfires from around the world.
David Attenborough calls for a new industrial revolution of sustainable innovation
British natural historian and broadcaster Sir David Frederick Attenborough told leaders at COP26 that we should be motivated by hope rather than fear.
Humanity can "turn this tragedy into a triumph,” Attenborough said.
"We are after all the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth,” he said. “We now understand this problem and know how to stop this number rising and put it in reverse.”
He pointed to world leaders in the room, saying, “That desperate hope is why the world is looking to you and why you are here."
-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs