Negotiations at COP26 go into overtime in an attempt to save 1.5ºC target

Two weeks of negotiations at the COP26 of the United Nations (UN), in Glasgow, Scotland, on the climate passed the final deadline on Friday (12), when the president of the conference asked countries to make a final effort to guarantee commitments that would control the rise in temperatures that threaten the planet.

With a deal now slated for Saturday, there was still plenty of talk to be done on issues like phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, carbon markets and helping poor countries tackle climate change.

A draft COP26 final deal, released this morning, requires countries to set tougher climate promises next year — in an attempt to bridge the gap between their current targets and the much deeper cuts scientists say are needed this decade to avoid catastrophic climate change.

“We’ve come a long way in the last two weeks and now we need that final injection, that spirit of ‘determination’ that is present at this COP, so we have that shared effort,” said COP26 President Alok Sharma.

Later this Friday, Sharma announced that the meetings would continue into Saturday afternoon and that he expects an agreement later in the day.

The general objective of the meeting is to keep within reach the 2015 Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the limit that scientists say would prevent its worst effects.

Under current national pledges to cut emissions this decade, researchers say the world’s temperature will rise far beyond that threshold, triggering catastrophic rises in sea levels, droughts, storms and wildfires.

The new draft is a balancing act – trying to meet the demands of the most climate-vulnerable nations such as low-lying islands, the world’s biggest polluters and countries whose fossil fuel exports are vital to their economies.