and, to put it bluntly, we are running out of time, fast. climate change is a deeply political issue. country leaders have to work together to stop the planet getting hotter. so this year, in november, almost 200 leaders are meeting in glasgow to discuss climate change. this event is called cop26. cop26 stands for conference of the parties. this conference in particular is seen as especially urgent because the planet is still getting hotter. right now may be our last chance to put the world back on track. but let's go back a bit. this was the moment of the paris agreement was signed. it was a big deal. back in 2015, paris hosted cop21. almost every country across the globe agreed to limit global warming. each party agreed to

make their own concrete plans about how they're going to tackle climate change and come back with an updated plan every five years. this is why cop26 is so important. it has been over five years since paris, so updates are due. as the president this year, the uk sees itself as a leader for climate change, being the first country to have an official climate change act. it has set out an ambitious ten point plan, including using cleaner energy sources like wind and nuclear, and pushing electric vehicles and zero emission public transport. the goal is to reach net zero by 2050. this means getting a balance. but, can it make good on these promises? some of the recent decisions around coal, oil and gas seem to go against this. remember this? the united states will withdraw from the paris climate accord. that was november 2021.

president trump removed the us from the paris agreement. the country is one of the world's biggest carbon emitters, so this move was really controversial. we are issuing america's first international climate finance plan. the us rejoined in february 2021, afterjoe biden became president. this moment demands urgency. he has pledged to cut emissions by 2030. but these big plans mean americans will have to choose their way of life significantly. china is the largest current emitter of carbon dioxide, but it aims to be carbon neutral by 2060 and bring emissions to a peak by 2030. for china to reach its climate goals it would mean cutting out fossil fuels altogether. this is tricky because the country relies heavily on coal, which has been important to its economic growth. australia is the world's biggest exporter of coal and gas, but is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

ahead of cop26, the government has pledged to reduce emissions to 28% by 2030. australia is doing our bit on climate change. but leaders in the us and uk think australia could do more. the prime minister has refused to make cuts to the coal industry. this is not completely surprising in 2017 scott morrison said this. this is coal. yes, that is a lump of coal he brought into parliament. but at the same time it is also worth noting that the country has made efforts to develop green technology like hydrogen. developing countries often face the most severe impacts of climate change, despite being the least responsible for it. we have seen droughts and cyclones in different parts of africa, extreme flooding in southeast asia, hurricanes in the caribbean, all of which can be attributed to climate change. and this is why one of the important points of the paris agreement

was to provide funding to developing nations. $100 billion of climate was supposed to be provided for them every year by 2020. we are still yet to know if this will actually happen. as cop26 approaches, there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered. meanwhile, the clock is still ticking. i travelled to the city of cambridge in eastern england, which is hosting its own climate change festival at the moment. one of the key issues on their agenda is climate repair. so effectively using technology to help the earth to look after itself in this fight against global warming. one of the key advocates of this approach is professor sir david kee, who chairs the centre for climate repair here at downing college in cambridge university. what we are planning is to imitate natural processes. so, in terms of looking at the arctic ocean, which is now 50% exposed to sunlight, for the three months of the polar summer, which is when these extreme

weather events occured. how do we manage to keep the ocean covered with ice so that once again it reflects icepack? that is what we are trying to do. and the natural process we are focused on at the moment is what happens when there is a storm at sea, you create little droplets of sea water in the year. the smaller droplets are picked up by winds going up. that can create white cloud cover. what if we imitate this by creating tiny droplets of sea water in the ocean and simply pumping them over the surface of the ocean? we plan to encircle the arctic circle with these

remotely driven ocean vessels which have been designed in great detail, so that when we get a met office information that the wind is blowing towards the arctic sea from one region, we activate those vessels. but it is, as you said, this is what if, it has not been done yet. the emphasis is on reduction of emissions. it is about adapting and mitigating. where do you actually fit on the map, if you like, in terms of, who is paying attention to this? the official meeting will only pick up from what we decided in paris in 2021, before we understood what we had to do to manage this crisis. i am seeing over the next four to five years we have two things in train. the process of the negotiating

will only complete the work done in paris. as you are indicating, it is a massive job. how do we de—fossilise the global economy after virtually all our energy has been provided by fossilfuels for hundreds of years? how do we de—fossilise rapidly so as to stop emitting? today we are omitting over a0 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year. at this rate frankly we are cooked if we continue. methane is clearly a problem in itself. step aside from carbon emissions. can you see, in your climate repair world, can you see the technologies and systems that could readily be brought into place to deal with that? the rate of increase in methane in the atmosphere is now almost as big a contributor as the weight of carbon dioxide. but it's a big challenge.

we think we have a set of programmes that we are putting forward experimentally at this stage. in three to four years we certainly plan to roll them out. the easiest place to go, here in the uk, is coal mines. disused coal mines. if the level is high enough you can burn the methane to make electricity, produce carbon dioxide. that is much better. but often the level is too low. it is less than 10%. there is the opportunity for us to capture methane. that is where we are going to start. so what are your expectations then for glasgow, for the c0 p26? we know the challenges are huge. what do you think can be achieved? the most important thing is that we should have china, the united states and the european union pulling

together, because each of those regions of the world are now very committed to action on climate change. for cop26 there is a first opportunity to have the united states, china, the european union and the uk. we mustn't forget, we have been global leaders on action on climate change for a long time, i would say going back to 2003. and so what we need now is to get these four together with india in particular, in the margins, to see that we create a big momentum, because frankly, if you get those four or five countries together, i think the rest of the world will follow. sir david, thank you. thank you. and that's it for climate change: countdown to cop26 for this week. you might like to check out our new climate page on the bbc news website for more analysis on all the major climate issues.

iam david eades. thanks for watching. hello. it's been a brighter day out there for many of us. either side of a weather system that has brought some rain into parts of wales and is spreading east across england. ahead of it in essex, there has been some blue sky, but it is east anglia and south—east england on the weather front. although it is weakening, there is a chance of some splashes of rain for a time this evening before it clears away. behind it, the clearer weather has moved in. there are showers around and that is how things are looking as we get on through the evening and into tonight. it is clear spells and areas of showers mainly in the west, but some will push further east as the night goes on. it is breezy out there and temperatures just

dipping a little bit lower, so more spots just getting down into single figures by the morning. for monday, then, it is a day of sunshine and showers, the greater chance of catching these will be in the west, especially here into western scotland, some along southern coastal counties of england, the heaviest places, a chance of hail and thunder. and a few showers willjust push inland and east as the day goes on. not everyone will catch them and most of the day is going to be dry rather than wet with sunny spells around. still a noticeable breeze. it will feel a touch fresher out there. and it will be cooler on monday night, as some spots dip down into mid or even low single figures, especially across southern areas of the uk where the winds are light and skies are clear. we are going to see the winds pick up again in northern ireland as we get rain moving in overnight and into tuesday morning, and by the morning, that'll be into western parts of scotland. and that is from another area of low pressure which, from tuesday, and for several days, is going to park itself to the west of the uk and around it there will be a weather front wriggling around northern and western areas with outbreaks

of rain at times, rain totals mounting in the wettest spots from that rain, with the risk of disruption as a result. so this is how tuesday is looking. that first spell of rain pulls away from northern ireland, across scotland, through northern england, maybe fringing north wales and the north midlands, it's turning breezier across the uk. plenty of cloud in the north and west, some drizzle in places too, central and eastern england, with some sunny spells. central and eastern areas, here of england, will stay dry for much of the week ahead. but again, that weather front will continue to bring some outbreaks of rain across parts of scotland, northern ireland, northern england and wales before clearing away on friday as it moves in towards central and eastern parts of england. whether you see the rain, though, or stay dry for much of the week, it's mild or very mild.

this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at seven. labourjoins calls from doctors�* leaders and health unions for the government to reimpose some coronavirus restrictions in england — warning that the vaccine rollout is losing traction. we need to do more to get on top of this virus, protect our national health service and stop more stringent measures of being having to be introduced further down the line. the chancellor promises a budget that invests in �*infrastructure, innovation and skills�* as the economy recovers from the pandemic. strong investment in public services, driving economic growth by investing in infrastructure, innovation and skills, giving businesses confidence and then supporting working families. eight people have been arrested in brentwood, in essex, after the deaths of two teenage boys in the early hours of this morning.