The outcome of COP26 will determine, to a large extent, how the world’s seven billion people will survive on a hotter planet and whether far worse levels of warming can be averted.
Fundamental differences divide the leaders. Many poor countries hard hit by climate disasters are holding out for the money promised, but not yet delivered, by the industrialized nations that fueled the crisis. Here’s what to expect.
“That we are now so perilously close to the edge for a number of countries is perhaps the tragedy of our times,” said Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados.
President Biden and other leaders are arriving in Glasgow after a G20 summit in Rome, where they agreed on a new corporate minimum tax, the world’s most aggressive attempt yet to stop companies from sheltering profits in so-called tax havens. But when it came to preventing future pandemics, health experts and activists said that rich nations were still not doing enough to help poor countries survive the current one.
