The coverage on this live blog is now over.
High-ranking officials gathered at the COP26 climate summit on Wednesday to discuss and debate more detailed actions and commitments to curb climate change.
On the third day of the summit, the focus was on the financing of climate goals.
Here are some of the biggest developments Wednesday:
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- 'Business has woken up' to importance of COP summits, EY leader says{
5:05 a.m.: 'Business has woken up' to importance of COP summits, EY leader says
The business world has "woken up" to the COP climate summit, Carmine Di Sibio, global chairman and CEO of EY, told CNBC on Wednesday, saying industry was increasingly aware of, and present at, the U.N. climate gatherings.
"They mean business," Di Sibio told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick. "They mean business, they're here to make sure the private sector is really involved in the climate issue. If the private sector is not involved we're not going to get to 1.5 degrees, we're not going to get anywhere near 1.5 degrees," he said, referencing the aim of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
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"Today they'll be announcements in terms of how much money the financial sector will be investing, and all those things are critical, and it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars," Di Sibio added.
COP26 is focusing on negotiations on Wednesday aimed at mobilizing public and private financing flows to enable the world to better tackle climate change.
— Holly Ellyatt - What Covid vaccine development can teach the world on climate change{
5:40 a.m.: What Covid vaccine development can teach the world on climate change
Collaboration between the public and private sector when it came to developing life-saving Covid vaccines during the global health pandemic can be used as a template when it comes to tackling climate change, the chief executive of AstraZeneca told CNBC.
"The Covid vaccine program has really showed us the power public-private partnerships and the power of collaboration between private companies," Pascal Soriot said."We in the pharmaceutical industry are working with other companies and the NHS (Britain's National Health Service) and other health care sectors to really work together and address this climate change issue."
Soriot noted that the whole health care sector represented around 4% of carbon emissions globally and that it was crucial to work together to manage how health care is delivered.
Soriot said the industry was looking at how it could treat people in a different way, using digital means to allow individuals to see their doctor, for example, in a bid to cut down on the number of people who have to drive to a clinic or hospital to see a doctor.
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— Holly Ellyatt - UK to become world's first 'net zero aligned' financial hub, finance minister says{
8:50 a.m.: UK to become world's first 'net zero aligned' financial hub, finance minister says
U.K. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans for the country to become the "first-ever net zero aligned financial center," saying it will soon be mandatory for firms to publish a "clear, deliverable" plan outlining how they plan to decarbonize.
Read more: Flagship finance pledges at COP26 criticized for ‘missing the point’ on fossil fuels
Speaking to delegates at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Sunak said the summit had brought together institutions with assets worth over $130 trillion and that financial firms controlling 40% of global assets would align themselves to the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degrees Celsius limit for global heating.
This represents a "historic wall of capital for the net zero transition around the world," Sunak said. "Six years ago, Paris set the ambition, today in Glasgow we are providing the investment we need to deliver that ambition."
— Sam Meredith
=null} - Corruption concern around African climate aid 'is overplayed,' says CEO of FSD Africa{
9:00 a.m.: Corruption concern around African climate aid ‘is overplayed,’ says CEO of FSD Africa
Listen to Mark Napier, the CEO of FSD Africa, discussing the near-term needs of green funding into African economies and emerging government “champions” from various countries aiming to develop climate regulation.
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13:01 pm: Professor Michael Mann: 'There been a total loss of good faith discourse' on climate change
Michael Mann, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, said on a panel at COP26 that there had been a "total loss of good faith discourse" on climate change.
Money Report
Mann was speaking on a panel about the coverage of climate change in the media, along with CNBC's Steve Sedgwick, and The New York Times Deputy Managing Editor Rebecca Blumenstein, moderated by James Harding, co-founder and editor at Tortoise Media.
Mann said: "I feel like climate scientists decades ago would have saw this localized cancer that was the bad faith discourse for climate change, in the way that disinformation was weaponized by the forces of inaction and fossil fuel interests and those doing their bidding."
Mann added that the "forces of inaction have found a way to weaponize misinformation and disinformation and exploit social media in a way that Mark Twain could never have imagined when he famously said 'a lie travels half way around the world in the time that it takes for the truth to get its shoes on.'"
— Vicky McKeever
11:23 am: Reckitt CEO: Investors engaging more with ESG than a few years ago
Reckitt CEO Laxman Narasimhan talked to CNBC at the COP26 climate summit earlier on Wednesday about how conversations with the company's investors, on its environmental, social and governance commitments, had become much more "sophisticated" over the last few years.
Narasimhan also shared details as to how Reckitt is progressing on meeting its environmental targets.
— Vicky McKeever
10:50 am: Nokia CEO: Europe still has a 'very fragmented regulatory set-up' for digital
Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark told CNBC earlier on Wednesday that he believed there was still a "very fragmented regulatory set up in Europe at the moment for digital."
For example, in terms of 5G infrastructure, Lundmark said that every single country in Europe makes its own "frequency allocation decisions which makes the whole system inefficient."
He said that a coordinated approach was important, given that Nokia's research estimated that 70% of businesses around the world will invest in 5G in the next 5 years.
This investment, Lundmark said, was "absolutely necessary if and when we want to improve industrial productivity to reduce emissions and reduce waste."
— Vicky McKeever
9:00 a.m.: Corruption concern around African climate aid ‘is overplayed,’ says CEO of FSD Africa
Listen to Mark Napier, the CEO of FSD Africa, discussing the near-term needs of green funding into African economies and emerging government “champions” from various countries aiming to develop climate regulation.
8:50 a.m.: UK to become world's first 'net zero aligned' financial hub, finance minister says
U.K. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans for the country to become the "first-ever net zero aligned financial center," saying it will soon be mandatory for firms to publish a "clear, deliverable" plan outlining how they plan to decarbonize.
Read more: Flagship finance pledges at COP26 criticized for ‘missing the point’ on fossil fuels
Speaking to delegates at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Sunak said the summit had brought together institutions with assets worth over $130 trillion and that financial firms controlling 40% of global assets would align themselves to the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degrees Celsius limit for global heating.
This represents a "historic wall of capital for the net zero transition around the world," Sunak said. "Six years ago, Paris set the ambition, today in Glasgow we are providing the investment we need to deliver that ambition."
— Sam Meredith
8:45 a.m.: How can rich nations support their less-developed counterparts?
Courtenay Rattray, U.N. high representative for the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states, discusses the impact of climate change on the economic development of Caribbean and Central American countries and what rich nations can do to support them.
07:45 a.m.: We need to get the carbon pricing market going in Europe, Santander's Botin notes
Ana Botín, group executive chair of Banco Santander, discusses the financial sector's response to climate change with CNBC at COP26.
7:30 a.m.: What's the outlook for carbon pricing?
Hear what Lord Greg Barker, executive chairman at EN+ and co-chair of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, has to say about carbon pricing.
7:00 a.m.: Carbon emissions could be a part of annual corporate reports
The amount of carbon emissions individual companies produce each year should become a part of their annual corporate reports, experts told CNBC, calling for science-based emissions targets to be adopted by the business world.
"[This would be] for transparency," Andrew Steer, the president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick. "We now know how to measure greenhouse gas emissions so if you're a company that wants to be part of the solution you have to be transparent."
Per Heggenes, the CEO of the IKEA Foundation, added that if companies did not adopt targets to reduce emissions "they should be discriminated against."
"I think, in the end, you will see those companies lose reputation because this is a reputational thing, it's not about financial litigation or punishment or anything like that, it's about the reputation of the company."
— Holly Ellyatt
5:40 a.m.: What Covid vaccine development can teach the world on climate change
Collaboration between the public and private sector when it came to developing life-saving Covid vaccines during the global health pandemic can be used as a template when it comes to tackling climate change, the chief executive of AstraZeneca told CNBC.
"The Covid vaccine program has really showed us the power public-private partnerships and the power of collaboration between private companies," Pascal Soriot said.
"We in the pharmaceutical industry are working with other companies and the NHS (Britain's National Health Service) and other health care sectors to really work together and address this climate change issue."
Soriot noted that the whole health care sector represented around 4% of carbon emissions globally and that it was crucial to work together to manage how health care is delivered.
Soriot said the industry was looking at how it could treat people in a different way, using digital means to allow individuals to see their doctor, for example, in a bid to cut down on the number of people who have to drive to a clinic or hospital to see a doctor.
— Holly Ellyatt
5:35 a.m.: Insurance industry sees massive opportunity in supporting transition to a greener world, CEO says
John Neal, the chief executive of insurer Lloyd's, has said the insurance industry is part of the solution to tackling climate change.
"We're part of the money [that can be directed to tackling climate change]. The insurance industry has $35 trillion under management so we're part of the solution of putting our assets at play to support transition," he said.
"We can take the risk and we can also help do some of the financing of transition ... I genuinely, genuinely think climate is the single biggest opportunity the insurance industry has ever seen," he added.
— Holly Ellyatt
5:20 a.m.: U.S. backs green bonds initiative
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the COP26 summit Wednesday that the U.S. would join the U.K. and other European countries in backing the issuing of investment-grade green bonds aimed at helping developing countries to boost sustainable infrastructure investment.
— Holly Ellyatt
5:05 a.m.: 'Business has woken up' to importance of COP summits, EY leader says
The business world has "woken up" to the COP climate summit, Carmine Di Sibio, global chairman and CEO of EY, told CNBC on Wednesday, saying industry was increasingly aware of, and present at, the U.N. climate gatherings.
"They mean business," Di Sibio told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick. "They mean business, they're here to make sure the private sector is really involved in the climate issue. If the private sector is not involved we're not going to get to 1.5 degrees, we're not going to get anywhere near 1.5 degrees," he said, referencing the aim of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
"Today they'll be announcements in terms of how much money the financial sector will be investing, and all those things are critical, and it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars," Di Sibio added.
COP26 is focusing on negotiations on Wednesday aimed at mobilizing public and private financing flows to enable the world to better tackle climate change.
— Holly Ellyatt
4:45 a.m.: CNBC's special COP26 show is coming up, here's who to expect
CNBC International's COP26 summit coverage continues as we have a special show coming up at 9 a.m. London time (5a.m. ET) with guests including Lloyds CEO John Neal, EY's Global Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio as well as Pascal Soriot, the chief executive of Astrazeneca.
Mark Napier, the CEO of FSD AFRICA and Greg Barker, the executive chairman of EN+ and co-chair of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition also join CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum and Steve Sedgwick in Glasgow.
— Holly Ellyatt
4:20 a.m.: Countries should not accuse each other of climate change failings
Countries need to work together to tackle climate change rather than to blame each other for each other's failings, Feike Sijbesma, co-chair of the CEO Climate Alliance of the World Economic Forum, told CNBC on Wednesday.
"I don't think it helps if different countries are accusing each other and I think they need to work together to come to agreements," he said, adding that businesses are ready to change and are waiting for government leadership.
"Businesses are now saying to them ...'listen, we are committed to reducing our emissions ... Now can that be a push to you, collective governments, to take the next step?' We need to see that now," he said.
The comments from Sijbesma, who is also chair of the Royal Philips Supervisory Board and honorary chair of Royal DSM, come after President Biden accused Russia and China, whose presidents did not attend the summit, for not "showing up" at COP26.
He said that not enough progress had been made since the 2015 Paris Agreement. "It's sad that six years after Paris, we have to say and conclude that we are not on track, already in the first six years."
— Holly Ellyatt
4:05 a.m.: Here's a recap of CNBC's highlights from COP26 on Tuesday
- World leaders pledge to end deforestation by 2030
- Jeff Bezos pledges $2 billion to fight climate change
- Biden backs landmark methane pact at COP26 climate summit
- Larry Fink fears for the energy transition, warns of massive ‘market arbitrage’
4:00 a.m.: BlackRock's Larry Fink has warned of 'massive market arbitrage'
BlackRock's Fink told CNBC at COP26 on Tuesday that "we can't just ask public companies to move forward without the rest of society."
"We have to be open-minded about what it's going to take. We're going to have to be brutally honest about, beyond just the window-dressing of big commitments, we need to be focused on how to build a plan with granularity and continuity beyond these two weeks and have a platform, a plan of having the public, private world working together to come up with solutions," he told CNBC's Julianna Tatelbaum.
Watch the video of Larry Fink's interview with CNBC below:
— Holly Ellyatt
3:30 a.m.: President Biden takes a swipe at China and Russia before leaving summit
Before U.S. President Biden left the COP26 summit on Tuesday evening, he told reporters that it was a "big mistake" for Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin not to attend the global climate gathering.
"I indicated that China and Russia not showing up, and Saudi Arabia, was a problem. We showed up, we showed up. And by showing up we've had a profound impact on the way I think the rest of the world is looking at the United States and its leadership role," he said.
"I think it has been a mistake, quite frankly, with respect to China, not showing up. The rest of the world are going to look to China and say what value added that they provided. And they've lost an ability to influence people around the world and all the people here at COP. The same way, I would argue with regard to Russia."
Although Chinese President Xi Jinping wasn't present at the COP summit, Beijing has signaled a commitment to cutting coal consumption at the country's power plants by 2025.
Biden's remarks came as he wrapped up his visit to Glasgow, having signed landmark deals to end global deforestation, cut methane emissions and provide climate financing to developing countries.
— Holly Ellyatt
