World leaders pledge to save humanity in COP26 summit

The UK hosts the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, 31 October – 12 November 2021.

The COP26 climate summit must act to "save humanity" and protect the planet, UN chief Antonio Guterres said at the opening ceremony on Monday. 

"It's time to say: enough," the UN secretary-general told world leaders gathered in the Scottish city of Glasgow for the conference.

"Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves," Guterres said.

Guterres called on rich nations to meet their promises of providing $100 billion a year in climate funding for poorer nations.

He also urged global leaders to do more to protect vulnerable communities, adding that nearly four billion people suffered climate-related disasters over the last decade. "That devastation will only grow," he added.

More than 120 world leaders are outlining their countries' plans to tackle climate change at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The overarching goal of the summit is to put the world on a path to aggressively cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow Earth’s warming.

Delegates are being asked to accelerate action on climate change and commit to more ambitious cuts in their countries’ emissions, all in an effort to limit global temperature rises.

The global summit convening in Glasgow, Scotland, widely seen as the most important international climate negotiations since the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord, began on Monday with a speeches by world leaders, including President Biden, who warned that climate change is “ravaging the world.”