Major automakers and 30 national governments committed to phasing out the production and sale of fossil-fuel vehicles worldwide by 2040 and by 2035 in some markets. Daimler, Ford, GM and China’s BYD — which combined account for about a quarter of global market share — all signed on to the legally non-binding agreement. “Having these major players making these commitments … is really significant,” Margo Oge, a former senior EPA air quality official, told the New York Times. “It really tells us that these companies, and their boards, accept that the future is electric.”

Four of the world’s five biggest automakers — Volkswagen, Toyota, Renault-Nissan, and Hyundai-Kia — did not sign on. And while California, New York, and Washington states, as well as multiple major cities in the Western Hemisphere, signed on, the United States, China, and Japan did not.

“For this announcement to have credibility all major auto manufacturing countries need to be part of it, including Germany and the US,” said Juan Pablo Osornio, head of the Greenpeace delegation at COP26. “This week is crunch time, and it’s vital leaders send a signal that fossil fuels are on the way out and are no longer a viable investment.” (FT $, New York Times $, Reuters, The Guardian, The Hill; Commentary: Bloomberg, Anjani Trivedi op-ed $)