Author: Nikki Nair

It's the third day of the international climate conference, COP26, hosted by the United Nations in Glasgow, Scotland.

World leaders are promising to protect forests and cut methane emissions. Britain reminds the conference of their commitment to end deforestation in the coming decade.

Forests are crucial ecosystems that play a large role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Deforestation increases the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which hits Indigenous communities the hardest. The UK received pledges from leaders representing more than 85% of the world's forests to stop deforestation by 2030. Over $19 billion in funds were pledged toward the plan.   

The conference is aiming to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This was the same goal set at the Paris climate conference in 2015. President Biden announced a plan to cut methane emissions as part of a united effort with the European Union to reduce worldwide methane emissions by 30% by 2030.

World leaders also promised to aid South Africa in phasing out coal. South Africa receives about 90% of its electricity from plants that use coal, so this is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States, Britain, France, and Germany all announced a plan to provide $8.5 bil in loans and grants over five years to help cut down these emissions. 

Even with these plans in place, campaigners say that the world's biggest carbon emitters need to do much more. COP26 will continue until Nov. 12, so many more climate commitments are yet to come from this summit.