A bit more on the Cop26 talks in Glasgow. As my colleague Graham Readfearn said, it will not finish today, Australian time.
The president of the summit, Alok Sharma, has issued at statement saying negotiations on a final outcome will continue through the night in Scotland, with a revised draft of the text to be published about 8am local time (7pm AEDT).
Country representatives will then gather to discuss them not before 10am (9pm AEDT). It’s expected the summit will finish sometime on Saturday, local time.
It had been supposed to finish at 5am AEDT today, but it would have been remarkable if it had. These annual, fortnight-long climate conferences have an unshakeable tradition of running into overtime. Why make a decision about the future of the planet until you are completely exhausted?
As our team in Glasgow has reported, a key remaining decision is whether countries are prepared to return to the negotiating table next year with strengthened short-term greenhouse gas emission reduction plans.
Research earlier this week by the Climate Action Tracker, an analyst organisation, found that current targets for 2030 would lead to at least 2.4C of heating, a level that would lead to catastrophic climate change.
Australia is one of the few countries to have refused to boost its 2030 commitment at Glasgow. Many others have pledged to do more, but their increased commitments are still nothing like enough to hold global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as scientists say is necessary.
Some countries have tried to argue that revising 2030 targets next year is contrary to the Paris agreement, which requires revisions only every five years. But many others – and several key architects of the landmark Paris agreement – have argued the Paris treaty allowed for this to be escalated, and that the science clearly demands it.
You can read more on the state of play here and follow the Cop26 live blog from Glasgow at theguardian.com from early tonight.
