First draft of COP26 agreement urges countries to strengthen climate plans

A first draft of the final climate agreement has been published by the UK COP26 presidency.

It urges countries to strengthen their climate plans by the end of next year to align with the Paris Agreement.

Analysis from the Climate Action Tracker warned that current commitments, including those made in the last week and a half, will see the world’s temperature rise by 2.4 degrees – significantly above the 1.5 degrees set out in Paris.

Diplomats will negotiate the final text of the agreement in the hope that as many as possible will sign it before the end of COP26 this weekend.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to return to Glasgow today in a bid to push countries further.

He said while negotiating teams have been working hard to “turn promises into action”, there was “still much to do”.

He said: “This is bigger than any one country and it is time for nations to put aside differences and come together for our planet and our people.

“We need to pull out all the stops if we’re going to keep 1.5C within our grasp.”

The draft agreement highlights the need to take action “this critical decade” in order to keep global warming as low as possible.

It also says countries must produce long-term plans on how they will meet the target by 2023.

The document calls on countries to “accelerate the phasing out” of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels.

It also covers climate resilience measures and financing for developing countries who are most at risk to the effects of climate change, urging countries to “scale-up” their financial support.