COP26 was surely among the most anticipated of United Nations climate summits since they began in 1995. As the world\u2019s leaders gathered in Glasgow in November 2021 to set out renewed plans for meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, the window of opportunity to avert the most catastrophic of climate change\u2019s impacts felt perilously small, even more so given that the pandemic delayed COP26 by a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the summit closed, progress had been made towards the Paris Agreement\u2019s goals, notably towards securing global net zero by mid-century and keeping 1.5\u00b0C within reach; and mobilising finance \u2013 from developed countries to developing countries and from across the\u00a0private and public sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the progress was not nearly enough. Climate change pledges presented by countries at COP26\u00a0would only limit global warming to 2.4\u00b0C<\/a>. Certainly, this outcome is better than the 2.7-3.1\u00b0C in the absence of these pledges but it would nonetheless be disastrous (see Figure 1). A rise of just 2\u00b0C is described as spelling a \u2018death sentence\u2019 for vulnerable countries<\/a>, and any increase beyond 1.5\u00b0C will trigger irreversible environmental and ecological damage, and huge economic costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nFigure 1: Global greenhouse gas emissions and warming projections until 2100<\/h4>\n\n\n