As you undoubtedly know the great of the earth are gathering in Glasgow tomorrow to meet for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). The faith of climate change, and thereby of our planet is to be discussed and it is said this will be the most important meeting since the Paris Agreement.

Why Glasgow is Important

In Paris the countries agreed that the warming up of the earth should stay below 2 degrees centigrade and preferably below 1.5 centigrade. However, already in Paris is became clear that all the commitments of the different countries put together would not achieve that goal. Therefore they agreed on a mechanism: the NDC in which countries are supposed to make even more committed goals every 5 years.

As you may have guessed already, if we count up all the NDC goals we still do not get to keeping below 1.5 degrees centigrade. This is called the Emissions Gap. The purpose of the conference in Glasgow is to figure out how to close that Emissions Gap.

Why it is Unlikely to Save the Planet

Though some countries are making real strides, we are all still short of keeping up our promises, there are some real obstacles to achieving what we have agreed in Paris.

• The Absent Countries: China and Russia.

Though many leaders are gathering in Glasgow that is not the case for Mr Jinping of China or Mr Putin of Russia. This is significant as China causes the biggest emissions in the world, and they are still growing. At the same time, Russia is a big exporter of natural gas, also a big part in emissions. The two of them being absent means a big dent in the plans.

• The Developing World

One of the problems is that of the developing world, where emissions logically are still on the rise. The idea of Paris was that richer countries could gift away some of their emissions to poorer countries, meaning they don't pollute more and chances are divided more equally. However, time has shown that this is not an option many rich countries use. Only 80 billion has been promised for energy transition in poor countries and the current plan only runs until 2025.

• The IPCC report

The IPCC report showed that not only are we failing to reach our goals, the warming of the climate has only accelerated. It showed a picture of extreme weather if we do not make drastic changes now. And that even if we do, the consequences will still be huge.

Closing Remarks

It remains to be seen if this meeting in Glasgow will make a difference, it has become clear however that it is a very important meeting. Let's hope some of the leaders of the world can rally together to save the planet we all live on.

I would love to hear your vision on this, feel free to leave your comments.