World leaders strike a climate deal at the COP26 summit

World leaders and negotiators struck a climate agreement at the COP26 summit in Glasgow this year, producing a global pact to intensify efforts against climate change, though the deal drew mixed reactions, with many praising its advances while others lamented that it fell short of what the crisis demanded.

The summit, one of the most significant international climate gatherings in years, brought together representatives from nearly every nation to negotiate stronger action to limit global warming and to address the escalating impacts of climate change.

The resulting agreement included commitments to strengthen national emissions-reduction targets, provisions addressing the use of coal and fossil-fuel subsidies, measures on climate finance to assist developing nations, and steps to advance the implementation of earlier climate accords.

The deal was hailed by some as keeping alive the goal of limiting warming to the most ambitious internationally agreed target and as marking meaningful progress, while critics argued that the commitments remained insufficient to meet the scale and urgency of the climate crisis.

The summit underscored both the growing international recognition of the urgency of climate change and the difficulty of achieving the far-reaching cooperation and action required, amid competing national interests, economic concerns and the enormous challenge of transforming the global energy system.

The COP26 agreement marked another step in the long and halting international effort to confront climate change, reflecting both progress and the persistent gap between commitments and the action scientists said was needed. As the summit concluded, attention turned to whether the pledges would be translated into concrete action, and to the continuing challenge of accelerating the global response to a crisis whose impacts were increasingly being felt around the world.