COP26 in Glasgow is underway!

A lineup of world leaders on Monday and Tuesday called for swifter action on increasingly evident climate threats and made a few key new pledges - including India's to achieve carbon neutrality by 2070, as well as $19 billion in new funding to protect and restore forests.

But current commitments still put the world on track for 2.7 degrees Celsius of warming - almost double the 1.5 degrees C scientists say is a rough safety barrier for humanity. 

Abdulla Shahid, president of the U.N. General Assembly, urged negotiators to "be honest with each other and with the rest of the world" about those shortcomings and "choose the hard but necessary actions".

"We have run out of excuses. It is time to do the right thing," said Shahid, who is also foreign minister of the low-lying Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives.

To speed more ambitious commitments, a coalition of 48 of the world's most climate-vulnerable nations now wants countries to ramp up their national climate commitments every year - not just every five years, as outlined in the Paris Agreement.

But Saleemul Huq, a Bangladeshi veteran of all 26 COP meetings since 1995, doubts wealthy countries are truly committed to "keep 1.5 alive", the UK hosts' overarching aim for the two-week conference in Scotland.

"My sense is this will be worse than Copenhagen," Huq warned over tea at bustling COP26, referring to the collapsed 2009 U.N. climate talks. "I'm predicting failure."

Still, what matters most is not what happens inside the walls of COP26 but what is going on out in the real world, where cities and states are scaling up low-carbon shifts, youth are leading protests - including one by Greta Thunberg's outside a world leaders' dinner Monday night - and businesses are becoming greener, he emphasised.

In India, for instance, engineering schools that once churned out coal technicians are now training graduates for a life beyond coal, correspondent Roli Srivastava found. That includes classes on lots of new subjects from solar energy to robotics.

Want a rundown of key issues at COP26 in just four minutes? Don't miss our video. And keep up with all of our ongoing coverage of COP26 here.

See you next week!

Laurie

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