What happened at Cop26 – DAY TWO at a glance

Summary of the main developments on the second day of the UN climate summit in Glasgow

World leaders agree deal to end deforestation, as we reported this morning. Xi Jinping, Jair Bolsonaro and Joe Biden are among the leaders signing the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use.

Biden has announced a pledge to cut global methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Reducing these emissions was touted as one of the most immediate opportunities to slow global heating before the summit, and almost 100 nations have now set a target to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030.

And the US has rejoined the High Ambition Coalition, with the aim of achieving the 1.5C goal at the UN climate talks.

The Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda, a plan to coordinate the introduction of clean technologies, including clean electricity and electric vehicles in order to rapidly drive down their cost has been agreed at the Cop26 summit by world leaders, including the UK, US, India and China.

African countries will spend $6bn on adapting to climate impacts, says our environment correspondent Fiona Harvey. African countries are preparing to spend at least $6bn a year from their tax revenues on adapting to the effects of the climate crisis and are calling on the rich world to provide $2.5bn a year for the next five years to enable them to meet their goals.

‘You might as well bomb us’, Surangel Whipps Jr, the president of Palau, told world leaders, speaking of the pain of watching his country suffer “a slow and painful death”.

Ecuador is to massively expand protected reserve around Galápagos islands, Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, Ecuador’s president, announced. The country would add an additional 60,000 sq km of protected ocean to the 130,000 sq km that already exist around the islands.

Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has defended his trip to space telling delegates that it made him realise how “finite and fragile” the Earth is.

Meanwhile, the UK, EU, and US signed off on a new $8.5bn Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa to help reduce the country’s reliance on coal.

Police Scotland has apologised to women in Glasgow who had to walk home in darkness on Monday night after well-lit streets were blocked off owing to Cop26 climate summit security concerns.

And finally, the climate activist Greta Thunberg has been filmed singing some choice words for the world leaders inside the Cop26 conference in

2 November 2021

The Guardian