'Last, best hope': COP26 opens in Glasgow

Glasgow: The UN climate summit COP26 opened on Sunday in Glasgow with appeals for action and prayers, kicking off two weeks of intense diplomatic negotiations by almost 200 countries on how to tackle the common challenge of intensifying global warming.

Following the opening gavel on Sunday, leaders from around the world will gather in Scotland's biggest city on Monday to lay out their countries' efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the effects of climate change.

At the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis appealed to the world's people to pray that world leaders' realise the suffering of the Earth and the poor as the climate warms. Negotiators will push nations to ratchet up their efforts to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) this century compared with pre-industrial times.

The newly opened summit remains "our last, best hope to keep 1.5 in reach, said Alok Sharma, the British minister chairing the Glasgow talks, known as COP26.

Scientists say the chances of meeting that goal, agreed to in the landmark deal closed at the 2015 Paris climate accord, are slowly slipping away. The world has already warmed by more than 1.1C and current projections based on planned emissions cuts over the next decade are for it to hit 2.7C by the year 2100.

The amount of energy unleashed by such planetary warming would melt much of the planet's ice, raise global sea levels and greatly increase the likelihood and intensity of extreme weather, experts warn.

"We can move the negotiations forward and we can launch a decade of ever-increasing ambition and action, Sharma said at the opening ceremony. We can seize the enormous opportunities for green growth for good green jobs, the cheaper, cleaner power." He noted that China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, had just raised its climate targets somewhat. "But of course, we expected more, Sharma told the BBC earlier Sunday.

In Rome on Sunday, leaders of the G-20 nations accounting for 75% of greenhouse emissions were negotiating on what commitments they're willing to make to contain rising global temperatures. US climate envoy John Kerry warned last week of the dramatic impacts that exceeding the 2015 Paris accord's goal will have on nature and people but expressed optimism that the world is heading in the right direction.

The United States is currently the world's second biggest climate polluter, though historically it is responsible for the biggest amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. India, the world's third biggest emitter, has yet to follow China, the US and the European Union in setting a target for reaching net zero' emissions. Negotiators are hoping Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce such a goal in Glasgow.

"We need all of the G20 to come forward," said Sharma. "The G20 represents 80% of global emissions and that's why every country matters but the G20 matters particularly."