Why the COP26 climate summit will be both crucial and disappointing

“THE RAINCOPCOPUNUNFCCCCOPCOPUNFCCCCOP it raineth every day,” Feste tells the audience at the end of “Twelfth Night”. And the it peth every year. Since 1995 the countries bound by the Framework Convention on Climate Change () have missed only one conference of the parties—when the pandemic struck in 2020. These s can produce action plans (Bali, 2007), mandates (Berlin, 1995), protocols (Kyoto, 1997), platforms (Durban, 2011), acrimonious breakdowns (Copenhagen, 2009) and agreements (Paris, 2015). But the rise in the atmosphere’s greenhouse-gas content and the associated warming of the climate continues in spite of them—even when, as so often, they are hyped as the world’s last chance.As diplomats, scientists, lobbyists, activists, artists, the media, politicians and businesspeople gather in Glasgow for 26, which begins on October 31st, it is therefore easy to dismiss the entire affair. That would be a mistake. The and its s, for all their flaws, play a crucial part in a process that is historic and vital: the removal of the fundamental limit on human flourishing imposed by dependence on fossil fuels.