COP26 Agreement Update

The 18:00 GMT 12 November deadline for talks was missed, and negotiators continued to work into the night debating the details.

• At 08:00 GMT 13 November the Third Draft has been published!
• At 17:42 GMT, after a stocktaking meeting, the COP26 President announced that there would be a short break before a final meeting to ‘consider and adopt’ the agreement.
• At 18:35 GMT an advance copy of The Glasgow Pact was posted online by the UN, although not yet finally agreed. The full set of documents is on the UNCCC website here.
• At 19.43 GMT The Glasgow Pact was agreed, with a change in wording from the “phase out” of the use of unabated coal (that’s coal-burning which is carried out without some form of carbon capture and storage to counteract the emissions it produces) to the “phase down”. This change was introduced in the final meeting by the India and China delegations.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, immediately responding to the agreed Pact on Twitter @antonioguterres and in a media statement, saying:

‘The #COP26 outcome is a compromise, reflecting the interests, contradictions & state of political will in the world today. It’s an important step, but it’s not enough. It’s time to go into emergency mode. The climate battle is the fight of our lives & that fight must be won’.

What this will be judged on, is not just the fact that countries have signed up, but on whether they meet and deliver on the commitments.