The 26th meeting of the UN climate talks was finally gavelled on Saturday evening in Glasgow, after more than two weeks of intense negotiations. The Glasgow Climate Pact secured a 2023 timeline for countries to resubmit their national emissions-reduction targets to be more aligned with 1.5°C (2.7°F) of warming, and made an unprecedented mention of fossil fuels and recognition of the need for Just Transition. Agreement was also reached on carbon markets, with major loopholes closed but still susceptible to bad-faith actors.
The U.S., EU, Australia, and other wealthy nations blocked the creation of a fund to compensate vulnerable nations for irreparable loss and damage caused by climate change, tabling it for more discussion next year at COP27, but the issue — long a priority for developing low-emitting nations, some literally disappearing beneath rising seas, least culpable for the climate crisis — got more attention at COP26 than at previous UN talks.
(Final agreement: Washington Post $, AP, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Reuters Factbox, Climate Home, Washington Post $, Wall Street Journal $, Bloomberg $, Reuters, Axios, CNN, TIME, Grist, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg $, FT $, FT $, Politico EU, The Hill, NPR, CNBC, New York Times $, InsideClimate News, AP, Reuters, Yale Environment 360, Vox, The Guardian, New York Times $; Fossil Fuels: NPR; Loopholes and Carbon Markets: Gizmodo)Bloomberg $, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Gizmodo, Reuters, S&P Global; Loss and damage: Thomson Reuters Foundation, E&E News, Climate Home, Reuters, Politico EU)