United Nations General Assembly (UNGA): Success on climate change or a drop in the ocean?

Bold strides on coal and climate finance made at this week's UN General Assembly injected some brightness into often gloomy discussions, with just five weeks to go until UN climate talks.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in his address to the United Nations that the COP26 climate summit of world leaders, hosted in Glasgow in November, will be be the "turning point for humanity".

But what still needs to be achieved?

End of coal?

Chinese President Xi Jinping's pledge to stop funding coal abroad was widely welcomed as a sign that coal is now "history", as China was the last major financier of overseas coal.

China had come under intense international pressure to ditch coal funding. So the announcement will likely "inject positive dynamism in the COP26 talks", said Anna Aberg, environment research analyst at Chatham House.

But the Asia giant still uses half the world's coal, and has put an end date on that, whereas many developed countries are phasing it out domestically too.

It also did not specify when it would quit coal abroad, and there is some concern about how emerging economies will meet their energy needs instead - although China will be positioning itself to help, as the announcement is about geopolitical power as well as the climate.

"Therefore, finance from rich countries must be stepped up urgently," said Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network, which represents 1,500 civil society organisations at COP26.

"Developing countries cannot make this Just Transition, given existing energy scarcity and their development challenges, without this support," she said.

Is the developed world paying enough climate finance?

US president Joe Biden's pledge to double his country's aid to help poorer countries cope with climate change is a critical step towards the global target of $100bn a year by 2020.

The new funding - which, subject to passing through Congress, will amount to $11.4bn - should help restore some trust at the climate negotiations.

Climate vulnerable countries, who usually have done the least to cause climate change, can be reluctant to make bold climate pledges themselves, if they don't see rich countries playing ball on climate finance.

But the 2020 target was already missed and there is still a significant shortfall. Ms Essop called the US's pledge a "drop in the ocean" of what's needed, and the issue remains a sticking point.

Sonam P. Wangi, Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group that represents 46 nations at the UN climate talks, warned the shortfall is "costing lives and livelihoods."

What about cutting emissions?

Poorer countries say the onus is also on rich nations to slash their emissions far more dramatically. But emissions pledges did not feature much this week.

Under the Paris Agreement, the 191 signatories agreed to limit global warming to ideally 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, and to submit climate action plans - known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - as to how they will each achieve this.

But UN analysis last week found so far only 113 countries had submitted new plans they were supposed to.

If the world keeps on the current track "then the temperatures will go up by 2.7 degrees or more by the end of the century," the PM Boris Johnson warned in his speech.

We may yet see more NDCs emerge before COP26, but these talks are all about bringing things to the table in good faith that others will do the same. So if some counties don't deliver, trust could be undermined.

How is the UK doing on climate change?

The UK government, as president of this year's climate talks, has positioned itself as a world leader on climate. Boris Johnson travelled to the UNGA on a mission to galvanise climate finance pledges before COP26, and apparently had some success.

But the government is "failing miserably" on its own legal commitment to reach net zero by 2050, according to Greenpeace UK.

Crucial plans on getting there, such as for insulating homes and the net zero strategy, have been delayed.

Its current plans will deliver less than a quarter of the cuts needed to meet the UK's interim 2030 climate goal, according to the Green think tank Green Alliance.

And allowing a coal mine in Cumbria and oil exploration in the North Sea will send our emissions in the wrong direction, Greenpeace says.

What will be the other sticking points for COP26?

Finally countries are yet to agree on carbon markets and on reporting emissions and these will likely be thorny issues at COP26.

The UNGA is not designed to iron out all climate issues, that's what the annual COP talks are for. But it certainly sets the stage, and has gone some way to injecting momentum into the COP talks.

Next eyes will be on next week's COP event in Italy and the G20 summit in October.

Watch the Daily Climate Show at 6.30pm Monday to Friday on Sky News, the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.

The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis.