COP26 video: What is the one key outcome you want to see at COP26?

As the conference enters its second week in Glasgow, Carbon Brief has been asking party delegates, observers, scientists and campaigners for the one key outcome they would like to see from COP26.

In the first week, pledges from the leaders’ summit made the headlines. These included a commitment to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, signed by more than 100 countries. A pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 – launched by US president Joe Biden and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, – was also signed by more than 100 countries. 

Meanwhile, the conference’s unofficial slogan, “keeping 1.5 alive”, was overshadowed by new analysis which suggested, with current NDC pledges, that global warming is on track to reach 2.4C by the end of the century. 

Several topics remain unresolved entering into week two. High on the agenda are issues that rolled over from Madrid in 2019, including Article 6 (carbon markets), climate finance and how to deal with inevitable impacts of climate change – known in UN parlance as “loss and damage”.

Video by Tom Prater for Carbon Brief

Dalee Sambo Dorough, international chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council:

“It’s our hope that the outcome document of COP26 is inclusive of indigenous people and their rights.”

Dr Adelle Thomas, senior Caribbean research associate, Climate Analytics:

“I would like to see a commitment to funding that’s new and additional for loss and damage.”

Prof Myles Allen, professor of geosystems science, University of Oxford:

“I would like this COP to acknowledge that a durable net zero for the climate has to mean every tonne of carbon dioxide generated by continued fossil fuel use by 2050 should be balanced by one tonne of carbon dioxide safely and permanently disposed of.”

Clara Descamps, Youth for Climate:

“I hope our politicians will show more ambition.”

Alberto Terena, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil:

“We as indigenous people want the world to see that it’s not just the environment: there are lives in those areas of nature, of Brazil, of the world, where indigenous people exist and need to be preserved.”

Dr Jassim al-Falahi, Iraq’s minister for environment:

“We need much more finance to rehabilitate, to reconstruct, the infrastructure that has been massively destroyed.”

Farhana Yamin, lawyer and advisor to the Climate Vulnerable Forum:

“Acknowledgement that harm is happening to very vulnerable countries, vulnerable people that did not cause this. They are asking for support for loss and damage so that needs to flow from this COP.”

Dr Nana Ama Browne Klutse, senior lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Ghana and IPCC AR6 working group one lead author:

“I hope that by the end of the day all governments will commit to fighting the issues of climate change because we need to cut the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere almost immediately.”

Fazle Rabbi, director of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation and Bangladesh delegate:

“We would like to get a very clear outcome on climate finance, loss and damage and a global goal on adaptation.”

Chioma Amudi, assistant chief scientific officer, Federal Ministry of Environment, Nigeria:

“I would like to see a decision on common timeframes for NDC communications and I also want to see concrete action on financial mobilisation for NDC implementation.”