Welcome to Bloomberg Green’s special newsletter on the latest from COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

What Happened Today

• IEA says COP26 pledges would slow warming to 1.8°C.
• Africa wants $1.3 trillion in annual climate finance
• Negotiators stumble over rules for global carbon market.
• Small print gives Indonesia a way out of coal deal.

On the Ground

By Jess Shankleman 

After a parade of announcements tackling everything from coal to methane and protecting forests, the question was what the agreements really mean. 

A day after U.K. COP26 organizers celebrated a major pledge to protect the world’s forests, one of the most important signatories said it didn’t actually sign up to end deforestation by the end of the decade. Indonesia, the top producer of palm oil, said it only agreed to keep its forest cover steady over the period — meaning trees could still be cut down and replaced. Brazil, another key member, said it would only target “illegal” deforestation. 

Indonesia also signed up to a pledge aimed at ending coal use, but a closer look at the terms shows it will be able to continue building coal plants at home. The U.K. highlighted Poland as one of the major signatories of that same deal, but Warsaw said it won’t phase out coal until the 2040s — the same timescale it was already planning — casting doubt on how much value the new accord adds.

As talks continued for a fifth day, divisions emerged over a big item on the agenda: rules for a global carbon market.  Developing countries want a percentage of the proceeds from all trading to be channeled to poor nations. The EU is resisting calls to apply the fee to transactions between nations — and says it’s a red line.

With Youth Day coming up tomorrow, activists are gearing up to make their voices heard. School children including Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for the Future are planning mass protests around the world. Tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on Glasgow to call for politicians and businesses to do more to limit global warming. 

Quote of the Day

The country accused the U.K. hosts of misrepresenting their agreement on forests, saying it never agreed to end deforestation by 2030.

“It is important to move beyond mere narrative, rhetoric, arbitrary targets and soundbites.”

Mahendra Siregar

Indonesia’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs

COP26 Scorecard

 

One Key Number

?

 

Number of Covid-19 cases at COP26, which remains undisclosed.

James Grabert, head of the mitigation division at the UNFCCC, told reporters that “we have been made aware of a few cases” but won’t be making the numbers public. 

From Bloomberg Opinion

Among this week’s more consequential deals was U.S. President Joe Biden’s big methane pledge. But Amanda Little suggests the plan is missing key components and overlooks another potent gas. As we find ways to finance the energy transition, it’s tempting to simply withdraw capital from companies that do the most damage. But Mark Gilbert explains how that could do more harm than good. Meanwhile, there’s a serious intellectual problem with our accounting. Mark Buchanan writes that while we are aware of the financial costs of climate action, the value of our planet’s plants, animals, rivers, soils and minerals are largely off the books.