U.S.-China pledge to tackle climate change

Lena Hok, executive vice president for sustainability and innovation at construction firm Skanska, told CNBC earlier on Thursday that a carbon tax would help “level the playing field for all companies.”

“So we are amongst the companies that would embrace clarity, as well as how to do carbon pricing and carbon taxes at a global trade,” she said.

The key pledges announced at the COP26 climate summit could bring the world 9% closer to achieving the 1.5 degree Celsius global warming target by 2030, independent research group Climate Action Tracker has said.

In an analysis, published Thursday, CAT said that sectoral goals on methane, coal, transport and deforestation, proposed at the climate conference in Glasgow could cut the equivalent of 2.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

However, CAT said that even with all the new climate pledges, global emissions were expected to be “almost twice as high in 2030 as necessary for a 1.5°C compatible pathway.”

On Tuesday, CAT warned global warming was on track to hit 2.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, despite 2030 targets.

— Vicky McKeever

The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, an initiative founded by Denmark and Costa Rica aimed at phasing out oil and gas production, has been formalized at COP26.

France, Greenland, Ireland, Sweden and Wales joined the alliance as full members on Thursday, while Portugal, New Zealand and Italy joined as lower tier members.

But some of the world’s biggest drillers of oil — the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada and China — did not sign up to join the group. However, the U.S. state of California and Canadian province Quebec did become members.

The U.K., which is hosting COP26 and calling on world leaders to be ambitious with their promises at the summit, also opted not to join the alliance.

— Chloe Taylor

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud has denounced rumors that the oil-rich nation has been trying to sabotage international efforts to go green.

“What you have been hearing is a false allegation, and a cheat and a lie,” he told reporters at COP26.

Documents leaked to Greenpeace’s Unearthed last month showed that leading fossil fuel producers, including Australia, Saudi Arabia and OPEC, had been lobbying the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to change its stance on the need for a rapid global phase out of fossil fuels.

— Chloe Taylor

U.K. lawmaker Alok Sharma, who is serving as president of COP26, has told CNBC world leaders must be ambitious as negotiations at the summit draw to a close.

“Progress has been made but there’s still a pretty big mountain to climb,” Sharma said. “We’ve got…