A lookback in pictures at COP26 in Glasgow - including Joe Biden, Greta Thunberg, and Leonardo DiCaprio

It was a bizarre time to be a Glaswegian in October and November, 2021 - as the likes of Joe Biden, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Greta Thunberg decended on Glasgow to ‘save the world’ from the ongoing climate crisis.

It’s hard to believe that COP26 was an entire year ago now - an event that threatened to shut down the entire city as foreign diplomats from across the world gathered in Glasgow to meet and sort out climate change ‘once and for all.’

The 26th Conference of Parties was meant to be the COP to end all COP’s - back then it was now or never - as climate change threatened to end the world as we know it. Thankfully, the meeting was a resounding success - as all parties involved decided to stop their polluting ways, be kinder to our planet - and just get on with each other.

Of course that’s not really what happened - in fact, not much has changed at all. COP26 was called a success by organisers as it delivered on it’s primary goal of keeping global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels. Nations also agreed on the Glasgow Climate Pact, which states that carbon emissions will have to fall by 45 percent by 2030 to keep alive the 1.5°C goal.

That was about all COP26 was able to acheive on the global scale of things. The biggest failure of the conference however was its failure to end coal power once and for all - as COP26 President Alok Sharma had hoped to ‘consign coal power to history’ at the conference. The Glasgow Climate Pact called for a ‘phase-down’ in coal power, but several coal-reliant countries said that they will not stop using the fossil fuel polluting resource until the 2040s at the earliest.

If there’s one thing to be said about COP26, it’s that it certainly happened. Around 30,000 delegates were flown-in to Glasgow - establishing a UN ‘blue-zone’ that quarantined a large swathe of the Clydeside in the city centre. We looked back at some of the images taken during the two-week conference to remember what the city looked like during that time.

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