For the next month the world will once again be focused on the treacherous global geopolitical terrain of climate change.

The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, beginning on October 31. The talks are scheduled to end on Friday, November 12, but if recent experience is any guide will be extended over the weekend as agreements are forged and contentious issues are resolved—or not, in which case they will be tabled for later consideration. Kicking the can down the road is standard operating procedure for these meetings, as one might expect for a 196-member international body that must operate by consensus.