A few years ago the singer Tim Bendzko celebrated a success with the hit "Just save the world for a short time". It says that “out there” the situation is underestimated, time is running out, and a major catastrophe threatens: “To wait would be a shame for the whole world population.” The song is a relationship song and makes fun of procrastinating , that is, about inventing convenient urgencies to postpone other unpleasant tasks. But it can also be used as an anthem for the World Climate Conference, which begins in Glasgow at the end of the week. For many, it is the last chance to save the earth from collapse. In this respect, the almost 200 participating states actually have the task of saving the world for a moment, more precisely within two weeks.

When it comes to climate protection, the world community has long procrastinated not to tackle the Herculean task.

In addition, there was also the corona pandemic, which ensured that the negotiations were postponed by a year and with it the announcements made by many countries to tighten greenhouse gas reductions.

Some countries will only present these commitments immediately to the conference, if at all.

Stay ten years

Twelve months delay is a long time, if it is true that within only ten years the conditions have to be created for the global warming to be limited to 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial period.

With the previously agreed climate programs, the planet is heading towards 2.7 degrees and thus towards creepy consequences for nature and its human contribution.

So more needs to be done, and the event called COP26 in Scotland is set to play a key role in this. For those who are not James Bond or a Marvel superhero but a ministerial official, saving the world is a tedious endeavor. For years they have been haggling over the details behind the scenes, and the negotiations in Glasgow are much less glamorous than the high expectations suggest. This is about transparency rules so that the climate efforts can be compared and checked. It is about aligning the time frames, because the EU is planning in ten-year steps, elsewhere it is only five. And the so-called chapter six deals with the possibility of transferring emission certificates for greenhouse gases across national borders.

The conference is considered to be the most important meeting since 2015, when the famous climate agreement was signed in Paris.

This was a great success because for the first time all industrialized and developing countries committed themselves to the common goal of stopping global warming, provided with temperature specifications and mechanisms for regular tightening of national emission targets.

But “Paris” left many technical and financial questions unanswered, without which the big picture cannot succeed.

Many are hoping for a giant throw

"Glasgow" is therefore faced with a difficult double task, an operational one and a global one: the negotiators have to go through the troubles of the level and tighten the final regulations for the Paris Agreement, i.e. to achieve what has always failed so far, most recently in Madrid in 2019. In addition, the heads of state and government will meet at two summits: first on the weekend in Rome in the group of the twenty most important economies (G 20) and then in a larger group at COP26. They could proclaim the 1.5 degrees targeted by Paris as the maximum target as a new orientation point, the "New Normal" and at the same time make important national promises, for example on stricter savings targets or higher financial commitments.

If the double strike succeeds, the conference could spark a new dynamic: away from legal negotiations, confessions and announcements of goals towards joint action.

Countries could help each other with the coal phase-out and its social cushioning, the cross-border decarbonisation of industry is drawing closer, and new hydrogen alliances are conceivable.

Unfortunately, there are many question marks behind this.

The EU has tightened its climate targets, but is divided on how to achieve them, with or without nuclear power, gas or coal.

Just as little is certain that China will announce a coal cut in times of power outages, as some climate protectors would like.

And so it is quite possible that saving the world will drag on a little longer.