Axios

GLASGOW, Scotland — International negotiators approved a climate agreement at the COP26 summit Saturday that calls for reductions in coal and fossil fuel use and transition to renewables — a first in the more than 25-year history of UN climate talks.

• However, the talks fell short of meeting developing countries' demands for access to funding to compensate them for climate-related losses.

One-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year.

Why it matters: Given the rising cost of staples and growing rates of global hunger, curtailing food waste could be one of the most efficient ways to feed more people with the food already produced.

The big surprise at COP26 was China vowing more aggressive steps on climate in a joint declaration with the U.S.

Catch up fast: The Wednesday statement calls for "accelerated actions in the critical decade of the 2020s," as well as cooperation on measurement and reductions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane.

GLASGOW, Scotland — China used backroom negotiating to make itself a player, though far from a leader, at the global COP26 climate summit.

Why it matters: It's in the world's best interest for the U.S. and China to manage tensions and cooperate in the future, since the two together account for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

GLASGOW, Scotland — An explicit effort to push the global economy away from coal and phase out fossil fuel subsidies has softened but remains alive in the latest draft COP26 summit agreement.

Why it matters: The careful language of the nonbinding agreement is meant as a critical global consensus on the scope of actions needed to prevent global warming's most dire harms.

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate in a speech Thursday challenged policymakers at COP26 to prove the skeptical youth climate movement wrong by following through with the pledges made so far at the meeting.

Why it matters: Climate activists have been largely doubtful toward the climate promises from this year's assembly because they are not mandatory, meaning no one will be punished for failing to live up to them.

Some of the most headline-grabbing initiatives to emerge from COP26 come with big questions about how — and if — they'll make the journey from promises to reality.

Driving the news: COP26 brought the arrival or expansion of coalitions of nations making voluntary pledges around phasing out coal, cutting methane emissions, electric car growth, ending deforestation, curbing overseas fossil fuel finance and plenty more.

GLASGOW, Scotland — When Tina Stege, the Marshall Islands climate envoy, walks into a negotiating room, she carries a burden that most other negotiators here do not. Her task is ensuring the survival of her low-lying island nation.

What's happening: In an interview with Axios Thursday on the sidelines of the summit, a visibly exhausted Stege talked about what separates her thinking on the COP26 climate summit from the others' approach to these talks.