The COP26 U.N. climate summit, gathering thousands of government officials, journalists and campaigners over the past two weeks in Glasgow, is a wrap - quite some achievement in the middle of a pandemic. But was it a success? That depends on who you talk to.

The British hosts and other rich nations think the talks landed some big wins, including getting fossil fuel reductions mentioned in an official decision for the first time and firm recognition of the need to tackle the surging "loss and damage" caused by more extreme weather and rising seas.

But small island nations and other vulnerable countries were frustrated that the negotiations did not secure agreement to set up a new funding facility to help them repair infrastructure wiped out by storms or move communities away from flood-prone coastal areas.

One view, however, does seem to have pretty wide backing: that the 1.5C warming goal is still alive and within reach - but only just.

Keeping open the possibility of limiting planetary heating to that ceiling will require a huge effort over the next year and beyond to secure faster emissions cuts from recalcitrant governments, and to push business and investment onto a greener trajectory, experts said after the talks.

Looking beyond the somewhat surreal world of climate diplomacy, David King - a former UK chief scientist who recently set up the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University - told our climate editor Laurie Goering that real change is largely now being driven from the outside.

That includes more high-impact lawsuits, big protests, efforts to establish new global institutions to deal with climate threats, key innovations and - nearest to his heart - "willing nations acting to deliver the solutions we need", he said in an interview at the Glasgow talks.

And there are plenty of things happening at a smaller scale on the ground.

They range from snake-like dams that can be moved around to where needed to prevent floods, to a U.S. company burying oil made from crop waste to sequester carbon, and solar-powered cold storage that lets Kenyan farmers hold onto their crops until prices rise, boosting incomes and cutting food waste.

New pledges to protect one of the planet's best natural stores of carbon - forests - were also widely welcomed at COP26.

But, at the same time, climate activists are concerned a surge in net-zero commitments, especially in the business world, relies too heavily on companies paying for offsets - such as by planting trees. That suggests their own emissions may not fall far or fast enough.

"Net zero does not mean zero," warned Teresa Anderson, climate policy coordinator for ActionAid International. "In the majority of cases, these corporations ... are planning to carry on business as usual."

Human rights groups are worried, meanwhile, that rules for global carbon markets - an outstanding part of the Paris Agreement finally settled in Glasgow - lack sufficient safeguards to ensure that indigenous peoples who rely on forests do not lose their land to carbon-offset projects.

By keeping control, "we are not fighting just for indigenous people but for everyone," said Gloria Ushigua, leader of an association of Sapara indigenous women in Ecuador's Amazon, who refuses to be paid to protect her forest.

One other must-read: our investigation into how wildfire fighters for U.S. federal agencies face a growing risk of work-related injury and illness as blazes worsen - and, in many cases, a devastatingly difficult struggle to get financial support for their treatment.

See you next week,

Megan

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