“My big, big ask of all of you is to please come armed with the currency of compromise,” said COP26 Chairman Alok Sharma. “What we agree in Glasgow will set the future for our children and grandchildren.”

Sharma also said he still intends to conclude the two-week talks Friday.

“I request us all collectively to please roll up our sleeves and get to work,” he added.

The European Union’s climate chief, Frans Timmermans, echoed the sense of urgency. “Consider my sleeves rolled,” he told Sharma.

In a swipe at major polluters like China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, whose commitments are seen as being far below what’s needed, Timmermans insisted that “major emitters have a major responsibility.”

Ahmadou Sebory Touré of Guinea, speaking on behalf of 77 developing countries and China, said they were “extremely concerned with the lack of progress” on the issue of financial aid for poor nations to cope with climate change.

With AP

'Near-final text to be published overnight': COP26 chair

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has denied allegations that his country was working to slow down negotiations and water down commitments at COP26. 

It is “a false allegation, a cheat and a lie,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud told reporters on Wednesday at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Delegations of about 200 countries face a Friday deadline to negotiate consensus on next steps to cut fossil fuel emissions and otherwise combat climate change.

Saudi Arabia’s team in Glasgow has introduced proposals ranging from a call to quit negotiations at 6 p.m. every day to what climate negotiation veterans allege are more complex efforts to block agreement on tough measures.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, and a handful of other countries long have been accused of seeking to block measures that would crack down on fossil fuels. 

“Other governments now need to isolate the Saudi delegation if they want this” conference “to succeed for everyone, not just fossil fuel interests,” said Jennifer Morgan, executive director of the Greenpeace environmental group.

With AP

Brazil urges rich countries to meet $100 bn pledge

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is back to Glasgow to press COP26 negotiators to agree on a deal in the summit’s closing days.

"Negotiating teams are making progress, but we need to pull out all the stops in the next few days to keep 1.5 alive," he tweeted.  

Johnson, along with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, will meet with government officials, negotiators and civil-society groups in an attempt to inject momentum into the talks.

Thunberg to petition UN to declare ‘systemwide climate emergency’: Guardian 

Delegates from almost 200 countries are due to review and start negotiating the text of the draft decision released on Wednesday.

Here is a summary of what the 7-page text says: 

• The draft COP26 decision released this morning highlights “alarm and concern” about global warming while continuing to call on the world to cut about half of its emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2030.

• But it doesn’t provide specific agreements on the three major goals that the UN set going into the negotiations.

• The draft mentions the need to cut emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2010 levels and achieve “net-zero” by mid-century. 

• It urges countries to “accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels,” but makes no explicit reference to ending the use of oil and gas.

• The draft also acknowledges “with regret” that rich nations have failed to live up to their pledge of providing $100 billion (€86 billion) a year in financial help by 2020 to help poor nations cope with global warming.

• The draft reaffirms the goals set in Paris in 2015 of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, with a more stringent target of trying to keep warming to 1.5C  preferred.

• Highlighting the challenge of meeting those goals, the document “expresses alarm and concern that human activities have caused around 1.1 C of global warming to date and that impacts are already being felt in every region.”

• The draft calls on nations that don’t have national goals that would fit with the 1.5 or 2C temperature rise limits to come back with stronger targets next year. 

• In a nod to one of the key issues for poorer countries, the draft vaguely “urges” developed nations to compensate developing countries for “loss and damage.” The idea has faced resistance from wealthy nations. 

With AP