[9] Initially, the Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth, Claire Perry, was appointed as president of the conference, but she was removed on 31 January 2020, several months after she had stepped down as an MP.

[13] On 8 January 2021, Sharma was succeeded by Kwasi Kwarteng as Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary and moved to the Cabinet Office, in order to focus on the presidency full-time.

[3][18] Both host countries, Italy and the UK, were heavily affected by the pandemic, and the venue of the conference, the SEC Centre in Glasgow, was converted in May 2020 into a temporary hospital for COVID-19 patients in Scotland.

[21] Independent observers noted that though not directly related, the postponement gave the international community time to respond to the outcome of the United States presidential election, held in November 2020.

[22][23] President Donald Trump had withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement, although this could not take effect until the day after the election; while his Democratic challengers pledged to immediately rejoin and increase ambition to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

[29] In September 2021, the conference was urged by Climate Action Network to ensure attendees would be able to attend in spite of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Critics suggested unequal deployment of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide could exclude the participation of representatives of poorer countries most affected by climate change.

[60][61] The prime ministers or heads of state of South Africa, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Malaysia and Vatican City also did not attend the meeting.

[69] Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who faced international condemnation over rising deforestation of the Amazon rainforest,[70] also decided not to attend the summit personally.

[78] Under the Paris Agreement, countries submitted pledges called nationally determined contributions, to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

Under the framework of the Paris Agreement, each country is expected to submit enhanced nationally determined contributions every five years, to ratchet up the ambition to mitigate climate change.

[85] From this wording it implicitly follows that utilizing coal power with "abation" (net-zero emission), e.g. by neutralizing the resulting carbon dioxide via the CO2-to-stone process, need not be reduced.

[88] The final text of the Glasgow Climate Pact include a call to: "accelerating efforts towards... phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies".

[91] The United States and China reached an agreement about cooperation on measures to stop climate change, including lowering methane emissions, phasing out the use of coal, and forest conservation.

[95][96] Major car manufacturing nations like China, the US, Japan, Germany, and South Korea, as well as Toyota, Volkswagen, Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi, Stellantis, Honda, and Hyundai had not signed up to the pledge.

[123] South Africa is set to receive $8.5 billion to end its reliance on coal, details are sparse regarding capping mines, exports and local community support for the workers in the industry.

[124][125] Countries including Chile, Poland, Ukraine, South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam also agreed to phase out coal in the 2030s for major economies, and the 2040s for poorer nations.

[140] 45 countries, including the UK, U.S., Japan, Germany, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Vietnam, Philippines, Gabon, Ethiopia, Ghana and Uruguay, pledged to give more than $4 billion for transition to sustainable agriculture.

[147][148][149] Business leaders and politicians including Jeff Bezos, Prince Charles, Boris Johnson, Joe Biden and Angela Merkel who travelled to Glasgow in private airplanes were accused of hypocrisy by commentators and campaigners.

[151] In October 2021, the BBC reported that a huge leak of documents revealed that Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia were among countries asking the UN to play down the need to move rapidly away from fossil fuels.

[160] By 1 November, at the outset of the conference, the climate change activist Greta Thunberg criticized the summit at a protest in Glasgow with members from the organization Fridays for Future, saying "This COP26 is so far just like the previous COPs and that has led us nowhere.

[163] On 6 November—the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice—around 100,000 people joined a march in Glasgow, according to BBC News, with coaches and group cycle rides organized for participants to travel from around the United Kingdom.

[164] On 8 November, Fridays for Future activists including Dominika Lasota and Nicole Becker held a protest prior to a speech by former US president Barack Obama, arguing that he had failed to fulfill his promise to provide US$100 billion in climate funding to developing countries.

Issues highlighted by protesters included putting corporate interests at the forefront and politicians' failure to address the climate emergency with the required urgency as well as its underlying causes.

[8][164] One intended participant, the Israeli energy minister Karine Elharrar, was unable to attend on 1 November due to wheelchair accessibility issues.

[170] There was concern about the inclusion and influence of large delegations of industries, particularly big polluting companies, and financial organizations involved in the causes of greenhouse gas emissions at the conference.

[172] CNBC, BBC, Axios and CBS News found that financial firms are not prevented from making private investments in fossil fuels,[173][174] that there is a lack of focus on and transparency of the quality—rather than quantity or amounts—of pledges,[173] that ending deforestation by 2030 is too late,[175] that countries need to publish comprehensive policy-plans on how they will achieve their targets,[174] and that the pledges are not mandatory, with no punishment mechanisms getting established at the conference[176] and apparent content with a "self-regulation" approach for relevant organizations.

[180] Academicians and practitioners on the field have floated several missing links of COP26 particularly the approach to climate change, disasters and public health consequences stemming from the meeting and how the neglect of healthcare will impact the Asia Pacific Region as a whole.

[182] On 9 November, Climate Action Tracker reported that the global human civilization is on track for a 2.7 °C temperature increase in the Earth system by the end of the century with current policies.

[99][183][184][185] On 10 November, it was reported that the United States and China agreed on a framework to reduce carbon emissions by cooperating on measures to lower the use of methane, phase out the use of coal and increased protection of forests.