“The reality is you’ve got two different truths going on,” Helen Mountford, vice president for climate and economics at the World Resources Institute, said last week.
The agreement outlines specific steps the world should take, from slashing global carbon dioxide emissions nearly in half by 2030 to curbing emissions of methane, another potent greenhouse gas.
The environment minister of the Maldives, Shauna Aminath, said the latest text lacked the “urgency” that vulnerable countries like hers required.
US President Joe Biden and European leaders have insisted that countries such as India, Indonesia and South Africa need to accelerate their shift away from coal power and other fossil fuels.
The COP26 agreement still leaves many developing countries without the funds they need to build cleaner energy and cope with increasingly extreme weather disasters.
Negotiators announced a major deal on how to regulate the fast-growing global market in carbon offsets, in which one company or country compensates for its own emissions by paying someone else to reduce theirs.
Vulnerable countries insist that rich nations should grant them a share of proceeds from carbon market transactions to help them build resilience to climate change.
US AND CHINA: The two countries announced a joint agreement to do more to cut emissions this decade, and China committed for the first time to develop a plan to reduce methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The agreement covers about 85% of the world’s forests, which are crucial to absorbing carbon dioxide and slowing the pace of global warming.
METHANE: More than 100 countries agreed to cut emissions of methane, a potent planet-warming gas, 30% by the end of this decade.
INDIA: India joined the growing chorus of nations pledging to reach “net zero” emissions, setting a 2070 deadline to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
On the first day of the conference, Thunberg joined scores of protesters on the streets outside.
Thunberg told the BBC in an interview before the summit that she had not been officially invited to speak.
Travel and quarantine restrictions meant additional costs in both time and money for lodging, which made the trip impossible for some.