The most critical climate change treaty today is the Paris Agreement, which will inform much of the conversation at COP26. Unfortunately, it failed to drive down greenhouse gas emissions. But the US didn't sign on because the protocol didn't include countries like China and India. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted - the world's first treaty with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The UNFCCC was the first critical milestone in the world's reckoning with climate change and its first commitment to a collaborative, concerted approach toward mitigating it. The meetings are formally known as a "conference of the parties" - that's where you get "COP" from - and feature 190-plus United Nations members that have signed up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. Politicians and policy makers come together to discuss climate targets and progress on reducing emissions. Since 1995, the United Nations has held an annual summit bringing together representatives from almost all the nations on Earth. In a nutshell, it's the biggest, most important climate conference on the planet. CNET will be on the ground in Glasgow to bring you everything from COP26 and beyond, and in preparation we've addressed some of the biggest points about the conference and things to look out for this November. The science and politics of climate change are often confusing, leading to a ton of questions. If much of that sounds like mumbo-jumbo to you, you're not alone. To ensure temperature change remains "well below" the 2 degrees Celsius agreed to by UN signatories in the Paris Agreement in 2015, countries need to act fast and double down on commitments to reach net zero emissions. That's why November's UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, is being hailed as "the world's best last chance" to get the climate emergency under control. Unless nations take drastic action to wean themselves off fossil fuels in the coming decade. Increasing temperatures, scientists have shown, will see more extreme weather events occurring more often - more hurricanes, more flooding, more fire, more drought - and result in a host of knock-on effects that threaten ecosystems, livelihoods and life as we know it. Human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are unequivocally the cause. The latest report from the United Nations' chief climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, shows global temperatures are very likely to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels in the next few decades. The planet, you've likely heard, isn't doing so well.