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What is COP26 and when does this ‘ambitious’ global climate change event begin?

Approximately 20,000 people will be attending the formal U.N. climate-change talks in Glasgow. Greta Thunberg plans to rally for more action; Russia’s Putin isn’t coming

Glasgow readies for the U.N. climate change conference COP26, to be held in the city from Oct. 31-Nov. 12. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host more than 120 leaders before the broader U.N. meeting of thousands convenes, at which governments and other groups will decide if they’re on track to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

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A host of extreme weather this year brings added intensity to what some have called the most ambitious, and possibly most critical, convergence of global powers to discuss climate change in decades.

Extreme cold knocked out power to parts of Texas early in the same year that brought an unprecedented heat dome and temperatures as high as 117 degrees F to the typically temperate Pacific Northwest. Huge wildfires, fueled by drought conditions, have singed major swathes of California. And Hurricane Ida clobbered Louisiana before...