COP26 

News, comment and analysis on the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties.

Glasgow will host 30,000 delegates in November for UN climate talks, billed as the most significant since the Paris agreement was signed in the French capital in 2015.


Climate change

Current global efforts ‘insufficient’ to meet Paris 1.5 degrees pledge, report finds

Drone shot directly above an electricity pylon and its shadow at the centre of two forests, Southampton, United Kingdom

Countries' efforts to limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century are 'insufficient', finds the latest UN Climate Change reports

Latest COP26 news

Environmental Politics

Sharma urges government to ‘follow through’ on climate commitments in run up to COP27

COP26 lead Alok Sharma has urged the government to 'follow through' on its current net-zero target in the face of comments the UK is backsliding on its commitments

Environmental Politics

COP26 unit to be cut by a third, Alok Sharma tells peers

The Cabinet Office team working on the COP26 agenda is to be cut by approximately one third, Alok Sharma has told peers

Environmental Politics

‘Walk the talk’ after COP26, say government climate advisers

In a stocktake of the COP26 climate talks, the Climate Change Committee has called on the government to reinvigorate the domestic climate agenda and continue to engage internationally

Policy

COP26: Boris Johnson ‘frustrated’ at watered down coal pledge

Prime minister Boris Johnson has spoken of his frustration that a pledge to phase out coal was downgraded after an eleventh hour intervention by India and China

Environmental Politics

Johnson 'mulls resurrection of climate department'

The defunct Department for Energy and Climate Change could effectively rise from the grave under plans being discussed to give COP26 president Alok Sharma a new job, according to reports

Climate change

COP26: UN talks run to the wire as tensions spill over

With the crunch climate talks in Glasgow now expected to on beyond this evening's official deadline, negotiations on key issues to implement the Paris Agreement and drive up ambition have reached crunch point and will inevitably result in compromises and tradeoffs, according to observers.

COP26 analysis

Global negotiations

The ENDS Briefing: COP26

Glasgow COP 26

With just days to go to the crunch climate talks in Glasgow, read our guide to the key items on the agenda and what to expect if you are going

Climate change

The COP26 survival guide: 8 tips for getting the most out of the summit

COP26 preparations are underway in Glasgow. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Attending COP26 and wondering what footwear to pack? Want to know where to find the best chocolate and where to get the inside track on what's on the day's agenda? ENDS spoke to attendees of previous climate talks to find out

Climate change

What do the COP26 outcomes mean for UK business?

COP26 has been hailed as both a success and a failure but regardless of what position is taken, the global conference's outcomes will have a number of short and medium term implications for business, experts tell Isabella Kaminski

Environmental Politics

Glasgow Climate Pact: 10 things you need to know

A last-minute quibble stymied an agreement to phase out coal power, though a global carbon market is being established and the vast majority of the world’s economy is now committed to net zero. Here’s what you need to know

COP25

Environmental Politics

‘No rules are better than bad rules’: Why COP25 ended in deadlock

Photograph: Cristina Quicler/AFP via Getty Images

The international climate conference achieved little this year, with carbon markets decisions deferred to the 2020 summit in Glasgow. Isabella Kaminski looks at what stymied the critical talks