COP26: Everything to know about the climate change summit on 8 November

Governments will push for agreement today on how to help vulnerable countries deal with global warming and compensate them for damage already done, a test of whether developing and rich nations can end a standoff over cash for climate change.

The African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change is calling for $1.3 trillion of finance from rich nations a year from 2025, according to Bloomberg. That's a 13-fold increase on the target of $100 billion a year by 2020 that was made more than a decade ago, but has been repeatedly missed.

Tuvalu's foreign minister has given a speech to COP26 standing knee-deep in seawater to show how his low-lying Pacific island nation is on the front line of climate change. Images of Simon Kofe standing in a suit and tie at a lectern set up in the sea, have been shared widely on social media.

The European Investment Bank and Allianz Global Investors said on Monday they plan to raise 500 million euros ($577.55 million) for a fund aimed at bolstering climate mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. The Emerging Market Climate Action Fund (EMCAF), a fund-of-funds, aims to bring together public and private investors.

Negotiations on rules for global carbon markets at COP26 are tough, but there are hopes of a breakthrough after years of deadlock, the Norwegian minister trying to broker a deal said on Sunday. Norway and Singapore are leading efforts for a deal on carbon markets that was omitted from the Paris accord.

Former US Vice President Al Gore said on Friday progress had been made on addressing rising global temperatures, but COP26 delegates of dire consequences if countries did not keep their promises. Summing up the first week, he said: "We have the tools that we need to solve this crisis. We have heard pledges that will move us in a long direction toward these solutions..."

An estimated 120,000 protesters, including Greta Thunberg, marched on Saturday through rainy Glasgow, and in more than 300 cities around the world, to demand bolder action at COP26. At a rally at Glasgow Green, indigenous community members called for rainforest protection and food producers urged ecologically friendly forms of farming.

Executives and financial analysts have said they are optimistic the talks will lead to changes needed for business to play a bigger role in tackling climate change.

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are returning to the COP26 table today, with just five days left to cut deals needed to cap global warming at 1.5 C - the limit beyond which the world will be courting devastating climate change impacts.

Among the big issues to resolve are: setting reliable rules for carbon markets, assessing how industrialized countries should pay for climate-linked losses incurred by the rest of the world, and working out financing to help developing countries adapt.

But one idea has gained traction: making countries review and, if necessary, update their emissions-cutting pledges every year, rather than on the current five-year schedule.

"It's an emergency. Every five years? That's not treating it like an emergency," said Saleemul Huq, advisor to the 48-country Climate Vulnerable Forum, which began lobbying for more frequent reviews before the Glasgow talks even began.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told delegates last week that, if COP26 fell short, countries should be required to revisit their climate plans every year.

US climate envoy John Kerry also backed more regular reviews.

"I hope we come out with a very good framework. Whether it's five years (or) less, I can't tell you today," Kerry told journalists Friday. "But I definitely believe it should be as short as we can."

US President Joe Biden's administration on Friday set a goal for driving down the cost of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as part of a US plan to decarbonize the economy by 2050.

The Department of Energy's Carbon Negative Earthshot seeks to slash the cost of carbon removal to $100 a tonne by the end of the decade, either through Direct Air Capture (DAC) or helping forests and other natural systems capture and store the gas.

It is the department's third 'Earthshot', meant to help achieve Biden's climate goals, by driving innovations in the toughest technologies to crack. The first two set goals on lowering costs of green hydrogen and long-term utility scale battery storage of energy from renewables.