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The pledge to end deforestation by 2030 was also formally announced on Tuesday. It was welcomed as a substantial development not just because it attracted the support of nations such as Indonesia, but because it was backed with real cash - US$20 billion ($27 billion) of private and public funding to help end logging and protect forests.

These pledges, coming on top of the surprise announcement by India that it would reach net zero emissions by 2070 and build 500 gigawatts of non-fossil fuel energy by 2030, led some delegates to breathe a sigh of relief.

Ambitious targets still possible

Mohamed Nasheed, a former Maldives president and an ambassador for a bloc of nations at the COP known as the Climate Vulnerable Forum, said he believed the conference’s main goal of securing pledges from governments in line with the Paris Agreement’s more ambitious target of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees was now in sight.

Rachel Kyte, a former United Nations climate envoy, was more reserved in her judgement, but said the three pledges represented genuine momentum.

Boris Johnson, who as COP host has become its chief cheerleader, also claimed to have “cautious optimism” due to the pledges.

The decision of Chinese leader Xi Jinping not to attend, the distraction of COVID-19 and the difficulties Biden is having passing a domestic climate package had led some to fear the COP might end in absolute failure. That concerned seemed to ebb, a little, on Tuesday afternoon.

The sticking points

With the majority of world leaders now to depart Glasgow, delegates, diplomats and staff will begin the arduous work of negotiating how the $US100 billion ($134.6 billion) in financing a year that the rich world promised developing economies in Paris might be secured and delivered.

The issue was raised by developing nations time and again in speeches over the past two days. According to Kyte the failure to deliver on the promise has breached trust in the Paris process complicated negotiations.

Even if it is resolved over the coming days, the damage is done, she said.

How that pledge might be met, and then updated, will be a key focus of negotiations on the third day of the conference, but not the only one.

Negotiators at COP26 must also address how to fund the cost of climate loss and damage - predicted to be somewhere between US$290 and US$580 billion annually in developing countries alone by 2030.

Another key set of negotiations will address the rules that will govern the global carbon market that was agreed to in Paris in 2015. These talks were begun in Poland in 2018 but moved slowly and ground to a halt when the pandemic struck.

Anguish and anger

And though some found grounds for hope on the sidelines of the COP on the day 2, on the main stage, leaders’ speeches continued. In some the anguish and anger was vivid.

“We see the scorching sun is giving us intolerable heat, the warming sea is invading us and the winds are blowing us every which way,” said Palau president Surangel Whipps Jr. “We see the scorching sun is giving us intolerable heat, the warming sea is invading us and the winds are blowing us every which way.

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“Frankly speaking, there is no dignity to a slow and painful death - you might as well bomb our islands instead of making us suffer only to witness our slow and painful demise.

“Leaders of the G20, we are drowning and our only hope is the life-ring you are holding. You must act now, we must act together.”

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