PM says COP26 is ‘world’s moment of truth’ in fight to tackle climate change
This year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow is “the world’s moment of truth” in the fight to tackle global warming, Boris Johnson has said on the eve of its opening.
Speaking ahead of the COP26 climate summit which begins on Sunday, the prime minister described the event as a moment for “decisive action” from world leaders.
More than 120 will travel to the SEC in Glasgow for a two-day World Leaders Summit on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 November, with 25,000 delegates, ministers and business leaders from 196 countries and the EU expected to attend the conference over the two weeks in which it takes place.
Boris Johnson has called on world leaders to work together for the good of the planet at the Glasgow summit
COP26 will be one of the biggest global gatherings the UK has ever hosted, and the government says a first busy day of events on Monday at the World Leaders Summit will set the tone of high ambition for the rest of the conference.
“COP26 will be the world’s moment of truth. The question everyone is asking is whether we seize this moment or let it slip away,” the prime minister said ahead of its opening.
“I hope world leaders will hear them and come to Glasgow ready to answer them with decisive action. Together, we can mark the beginning of the end of climate change – and end the uncertainty once and for all.”
This year’s summit is particularly important as it will be the first time the parties will review the most up-to-date plans for how they will limit global warming to 2C but ideally 1.5C, a goal set under the Paris Agreement at COP21.
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‘Time is not on our side’
The UK government has set aims for the COP26 summit including to urge countries to drive forward net zero commitments ahead of 2050, to reduce emissions rapidly over the next decade through commitments on coal, cars and trees and to provide the finance needed by developing nations to deal with climate change.
On Monday, Mr Johnson is set to deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the COP26 World Leaders Summit which will take place at around midday.
The theme of the opening ceremony is “Earth to COP” – a message that represents a direct intervention from the planet and its people for leaders to heed its warnings and advance progress to tackle climate change, the UK government said.
Among those attending and addressing world leaders will include Prince Charles and Sir David Attenborough, the COP26 people’s advocate.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Italian prime minister and co-host of COP26 Mario Draghi, and Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley will also speak during the ceremony.
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‘I hope and pray that COP26 takes action’
On Monday evening, Mr Johnson is due to host a reception to welcome the world leaders in attendance to Glasgow alongside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall.
The Queen, who – it was announced last week – will not be attending the climate summit in person, will address the delegates via a pre-recorded video.
Items on the menu will include traditional Scottish canapes, Ridgeview Vintage English Sparkling Wine and COP26 blended whiskey.
Alongside the refreshments, guests will be entertained with music from a string quartet and brass quintet from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Speaking at the G20 summit in Rome on Saturday, the prime minister told Sky News’ Beth Rigby that success in the fight to tackle global warming “is going to very difficult” but “the whole of humanity is in the ring”.
The prime minister said there is “a chance, if everybody puts their minds to it” that an agreement on climate change can be achieved – but stressed that global temperature rises will not be stopped at COP26.
His comments came a day after he told journalists en route to the first of the global gatherings in Rome that “Team World” was “5-1” down at half-time in the battle to save the planet.
COP26 officially opens on Sunday 31 October and concludes on Friday 12 November.
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When FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, it sent shockwaves throughout the crypto world, erasing billions in market liquidity and shattering confidence in centralized exchanges.
The dramatic collapse became a turning point for the digital asset industry, triggering calls for stronger transparency and reactions from regulators.
Three years after the exchange’s collapse, transparency initiatives across the crypto industry have proliferated. Proof-of-reserves attestations, audits and onchain analytics represented progress. Still, many of those reforms remain works in progress, and some of FTX’s creditors have yet to be made whole.
CEXs forced to adjust post FTX
Centralized exchanges bore the full impact of the post-FTX crisis of confidence. In the weeks following the bankruptcy, users withdrew more than $20 billion from major trading platforms, according to CoinGecko data.
In response, exchanges began publishing proof-of-reserves (PoR) attestations to demonstrate solvency. Binance released its first report on Nov. 10, 2022, followed by a Merkle Tree-based report a few days later that allowed users to verify its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings.
Around that time, OKX, Deribit and Crypto.com all published proofs-of-reserve amid fears of contagion and uncertainty surrounding crypto exchanges.
While these efforts offered some visibility into reserves, most relied on snapshots rather than continuous audits and often drew criticism from the crypto community.
One X user, David Gokhshtein, said at the time that publishing proof-of-reserves wasn’t enough. “When you aren’t showing the company’s liabilities, it means nothing,” he wrote.
Thomas Perfumo, Kraken’s global economist, told Cointelegraph that the “hard lessons of the past were never an indictment of crypto,” adding that the FTX debacle reinforced the “governance and integrity matter.”
Decentralized finance protocols also adapted following the collapse, pushing calls not only for transparency but also for self-custody as an essential safeguard for crypto users.
“We’ve seen a notable shift,” Eddie Zhang, president of dYdX Labs, told Cointelegraph. According to Zhang, DeFi now operates under stronger risk frameworks while “governance is becoming more sophisticated,” with systems that “withstand market shocks.”
Related: FTX’s 2-year repayment delay is a ‘win,’ claims trader who predicted FTX’s collapse
Creditors still waiting for closure
Despite the industry’s transparency campaigns and recent regulations, such as the GENIUS Act in the United States and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, some FTX creditors have yet to recover their losses.
According to a Nov. 9 update by Sunil Kavuri, a FTX creditor representative, the exchange has distributed $7.1 billion to creditors across three rounds so far.
In January, FTX announced the distribution of more than $1.2 billion in repayments to creditors who fulfilled certain requirements before Jan. 20. However, according to Sunil, only $454 million was effectively paid in the first round, going to small claimants with balances under $50,000.
A larger $5 billion payout followed on May 30, while the latest round took place on Sept. 30 and distributed another $1.6 billion to creditors. The next distribution is expected in January 2026, though it has not been confirmed by the FTX estate.
FTX’s total recovered assets were estimated at about $16.5 billion in October 2024.
According to Kavuri, because repayments are being made in US dollars rather than in-kind crypto assets, creditors are missing out on the market’s rebound since 2022.
Bitcoin, valued at $16,797 the day after FTX filed for bankruptcy, was trading around $103,000 on Tuesday.
Even with cash repayments exceeding the original claim amounts, real recovery rates could range from 9% to 46% when adjusted for current crypto prices, Kavuri said.
Related: FTX drops ‘restricted countries’ motion but warns it may refile
SBF looks for a lifeline
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy but has appealed his conviction, arguing that he was denied the presumption of innocence and barred from presenting evidence that FTX was, in fact, solvent in November 2022. His legal team appeared before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Nov. 4.
Prediction market Polymarket currently assigns only a 4% probability that Bankman-Fried will receive a presidential pardon in 2025. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who cooperated with prosecutors, began serving her sentence in late 2024 and is projected to be released in mid-2026.
Magazine: Good luck suing crypto exchanges, market makers over the flash crash
John Deaton, a lawyer who advocates for XRP holders and ran against Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in the 2024 US election, is making another bid for Congress.
At a Monday event in Worcester, Massachusetts, Deaton announced that he would run for US Senate again in 2026, this time attempting to unseat Democratic Senator Ed Markey. The lawyer ran as the Republican candidate in 2024, losing to Warren, a Democrat, by about 700,000 votes.
“I’m winning this time,” Deaton said in a campaign video aired at the Worcester event.
Deaton, who said he will run as a Republican to unseat Markey, will likely face competition on both sides of the aisle in 2026. His campaign announcement did not specifically focus on digital asset policy, but he and Warren had previously clashed over their respective views on crypto.
Related: XRP Army made a difference in Ripple’s SEC lawsuit: Crypto lawyer
Deaton gained widespread recognition in the crypto industry by advocating on behalf of XRP (XRP) holders in Ripple Labs’ legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Seth Moulton, who represents Massachusetts’s 6th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives, is a Democratic contender in the 2026 race. Markey, who will be 80 next year, voted against the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin bill and has called out crypto mining for its “extravagant electricity use.”
Looking at a repeat of 2024?
“We’re never going to not be excited about someone advocating for [crypto] policy,” Mason Lynaugh, community director of Stand With Crypto, told Cointelegraph. “He’s going to have his own voters he’s going to cultivate that are very excited to see someone like him saying these types of things publicly.”
It’s unclear what Deaton’s chances would be in a US state that typically swings to the Democrats.
During his previous Senate campaign, cryptocurrency executives from Ripple, Gemini and Kraken supported Deaton’s run, contributing more than $360,000 in the first quarter of 2024.
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