“This is not a success or failure, it’s a process..” – Marion Briggs, Chairperson Friends of the Earth

What now for the world? Governments have reached a climate deal which gets us closer to holding temperatures rises to 1.5C. But a last-ditch effort from India and China to water down pledges to phase out coal has led some to consider COP26 a failure.

Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Glasgow during the conference and took to the podium to criticise COP26 for not going far enough. Activists say that the time for ‘small steps in the right direction’ is gone and without an agreement to implement drastic annual emission cuts the next generation will face an increasingly inhospitable climate. In the words of Thunberg ‘winning slowly, equals losing’.

But others have declared COP26 a mild success. The process has shown that 196 nations, with 196 competing goals, are willing to come together and pull in the same direction. They have signed up to an agreement to end and reverse deforestation, cut methane emission levels by 30% and greatly reduce reliance on coal power. Yes, COP26 could have achieved more but this agreement is a strong foundation on which the world can build for the future.