COP26 – the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) hosted by the United Kingdom in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31 – November 12 has brought around 190 world leaders and parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The UK, together with its partner Italy, is hosting the event, which many believe to be the world’s last best chance to get runaway climate change under control. For nearly three decades the UN has been bringing together almost every country on earth for global climate summits. This year is the 26th annual summit – giving it the name COP26. More than 190 world leaders together with tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens have converged for twelve days of talks. Most experts believe the COP26 has a particular urgency. In the COP21, which took place in Paris in 2015 every country agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees and aim for 1.5 degrees, to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate and to make money available to deliver on these aims. The Paris Agreement was born. The commitment to aim for 1.5 degrees is important because every fraction of a degree of warming results in the tragedy of many more lives lost and livelihoods damaged. Under the Paris Agreement, countries committed to bring forward national plans setting out how much they would reduce their emissions - known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or ‘NDCs’. They agreed that every five years they would come back with an updated plan that would reflect their highest possible ambition at that time. The run up to this year’s summit in Glasgow (delayed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic) is the moment when countries update their plans for reducing emissions. But, the commitments laid out in Paris did not come close to limiting global warming to...