Science

COP26 was billed as our last chance to save the planet from climate catastrophe. To keep 1.5 alive. So did world governments rise to the challenge?

Glasgow might have thrown open its doors to the rest of the world here at COP26, but in reality the sheer struggle with visas, vaccinations and intercontinental travel have stopped some people getting here at all.

Drought, floods, net zero – all of these are dominating the agenda in Glasgow. But one burning issue that’s receiving less attention at COP26 is how climate change is already fuelling conflict.

We spoke to the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and asked him if climate change is a bigger challenge for us than Covid.

What are the crunch points in these sprawling negotiations, which have been described by one weary delegate as like playing three- dimensional chess with spaghetti?

There’s not much time, and a mountain to climb: that’s the message to leaders at the COP26 summit here in Glasgow, where the president of the talks Alok Sharma has urged countries to set even more ambitious goals, to have any chance of keeping global warming in check.

With the world leaders now gone, discussions are spreading across Glasgow, including this building, which is host to the New York Times Climate Hub, where we are an affiliate broadcaster.

There is a furious debate around the merits of carbon offsetting, which allows businesses to ostensibly cancel out their greenhouse gas emissions by buying carbon credits elsewhere. 

We caught up with  the former US vice president turned climate campaigner Al Gore.

We spoke to Frans Timmermans, the European Commission vice president in charge of their green deal, and began by asking him how he was going to make sure Europe delivers on its big promises.

We talked to the venture capitalist John Doerr, who’s the author of Speed and Scale, an action plan to solve the climate crisis now.

In Glasgow, after all the pledges to protect the planet and ensure a greener future, the talk has turned to how to pay for it all. 

Simon Roach breaks down what COP26 has offered so far and what hope he has for the rest of the conference.

Mexicans are the biggest consumers of surgery drinks in the world. But the country’s sugar obsession is causing what health officials are calling a diabetes emergency.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has called on world leaders to be “bolder” in tackling the climate crisis when they meet for the UN’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, saying the era of fossil fuels must come to an end. But before he became ordained and heard, as he puts it, “God calling”, the Archbishop spent more…