COP26 live updates: World leaders arrive in Glasgow for high-stakes climate summit

World leaders, negotiators from 190 countries, British royals, authoritative observers, journalists, activists, celebrities — and arsenic galore arsenic 100,000 demonstrators — are descending connected Glasgow, Scotland, to effort to prevention the satellite from runaway warming.

What could spell wrong? A lot. Even isolated from a imaginable nonaccomplishment of the talks.

The COP26 clime summit, postponed past twelvemonth due to the fact that of the pandemic, is going guardant contempt a soaring spike of the coronavirus successful Britain, wherever lawsuit levels present rival past winter’s peak.

The British and Scottish governments, serving arsenic hosts, are expecting up to 30,000 authoritative attendees — who volition beryllium gathering indoors, huddling successful tense talks, for hours and hours a day, from Sunday to Nov. 12 and perchance longer. It volition beryllium the largest acme ever hosted successful Britain. Organizers are scrambling to marque definite the league does not morph into a superspreader event.

The bully news: They look to person averted a onslaught by obstruction workers that would person brought Scotland’s trains to a standstill. The atrocious news: Trash collectors are inactive threatening to onslaught — reviving images of mountains of rubbish during a 13-week onslaught successful the 1970s. Not rather the Earth-friendly representation Scotland is going for.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to supply vaccine doses to each attendees who could not get them successful their location nations. A spokesperson from the Cabinet Office said Wednesday that doses went retired to recipients successful 70 nations, but helium declined to accidental however galore radical had received them.

“We are moving tirelessly with each our partners, including the Scottish Government and the U.N., to guarantee an inclusive, accessible and harmless acme successful Glasgow,” said a COP26 spokesman, who is not named successful keeping with British protocol.

The British authorities has been criticized for being dilatory and disorganized, lone getting the archetypal doses retired to delegations six weeks ago, successful an accelerated docket that would hardly let for 4 weeks betwixt rounds.

“We’ve heard from a batch of delegates who kick to america that they recovered the full process precise cumbersome. It’s not wide astatine each however galore radical took vantage of the U.K. connection for vaccines,” said Harjeet Singh, a elder advisor for Climate Action Network, successful New Delhi.

“A batch of attendees are concerned, you could say, adjacent anxious, astir covid astatine the conference,” Singh said.

The result of the talks volition person existent consequences for the full planet.

This summertime alone, historical vigor waves enveloped America’s Pacific Northwest. Intense wildfires raged from California to Canada, from Greece to Siberia. Deadly floods deluged the U.S. Northeast, portion extreme drought spurred h2o concerns successful the Southwest. Climate-fueled catastrophes struck different parts of the satellite arsenic well, from terrible drought successful Brazil to massive flooding that killed hundreds of radical successful Belgium and Germany.

A Washington Post analysis found that astir 1 successful 3 Americans unrecorded successful a region deed by a upwind catastrophe this summer, and different recent probe recovered that today’s children tin expect to unrecorded done 3 times arsenic galore clime disasters arsenic their grandparents.

The urgency astir this year’s U.N. acme centers connected 2 realities: Climate alteration is nary longer a aboriginal concern. It has go a occupation today, for affluent and mediocre nations alike. And scientists person made wide that climate-related calamities volition lone go much predominant and aggravated unless humanity makes superior changes successful the years ahead.

The main extremity of COP26 is to get nations to fastener successful emissions-cutting plans that support live the people of limiting Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. That remains successful superior doubt, fixed that it would necessitate immoderate ample nations to marque far-reaching promises that person yet to materialize.

But that’s not the lone aspiration successful Glasgow.

Top officials person made wide their tendency to yet “consign ember to history,” successful the words of Alok Sharma, the British person serving arsenic president of COP26.

Meanwhile, affluent countries look expanding unit to present connected their unfulfilled pledge to mobilize astatine slightest $100 cardinal a twelvemonth to assistance poor, processing nations go much resilient to clime disasters and determination distant from fossil fuels.

Away from the spotlight, officials volition beryllium moving to finalize the Paris agreement’s “rule book,” which would fortify the 2015 agreement. While officials worked retired galore details astatine earlier summits, immoderate cardinal issues stay unresolved, including the analyzable and contentious rules that govern planetary c markets — a taxable that has tripped up negotiators astatine the past 2 U.N. gatherings, successful Poland and Madrid.

Since 1995, satellite leaders have met annually to hash retired however to tackle clime change. This autumn marks the 26th gathering of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention connected Climate Change. Or, due to the fact that that’s a mouthful, COP26.

Beginning Oct. 31, delegates from astir 200 nations are expected to descend connected Glasgow, the tract of this year’s summit. The 2 weeks of talks person an overarching goal: to enactment the satellite connected a way to aggressively chopped greenhouse state emissions and dilatory Earth’s warming.

But the negotiators won’t beryllium alone. Environmental groups, scientists, concern leaders, diplomats and journalists volition amusement up arsenic well. And clime protesters are readying to get successful unit to request that satellite leaders lucifer their rhetoric with action.

Government leaders astatine the summit, which was delayed a year by the coronavirus pandemic, volition find themselves facing unit to marque bolder and more-concrete promises than they person successful the past.