The next annual United Nations climate conference, COP 26, will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, under the UK’s presidency in partnership with Italy, in early November. The conference takes place a year later than planned, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. International climate policy expert Stefan Aykut takes stock of the COP process since the Paris Agreement in 2015 and tells Benjamin Joyeux why the success of the upcoming conference should be judged on its capacity to foster connections rather than to establish binding governance.