The first week of COP26 was less substantive than it seemed

IT IS A little-known fact that there is no formally agreed rule for how decisions must be made within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), whose parties are currently assembled in Glasgow, Scotland, for their 26th annual conference, also known as COP26. Voting procedures for the convention have been a point of disagreement since the very first such conference in Berlin in 1995. A small group of oil-producing nations opposed the idea of a decisive three-quarters majority, and decisions ever since have been taken by consensus, even though there is no text requiring it. As COP26 moves into its second week this procedural strait jacket will start to make itself felt. While sometimes praised for creating a truly global process on a gnarly issue, it is frequently and quite rightly blamed for the glacial pace of climate negotiations.