COP26 is coming to Glasgow for a summit that will give the city, for good or ill, a place in the history of the fight against climate change.
Some of the figures are staggering – 30,000 delegates, 10,000 police, maybe 200,000 protesters and activists are descending by land, sea and air.
But if we are to limit global temperatures to a 1.5C rise, the maths of COP26 are daunting too.
To get there we need clear commitments to reduce global emissions from 53 gigatonnes to 25 gigatonnes in 2030.
Less than four gigatonnes of reduction in CO2 emissions are estimated to have been pledged so far.
What Glasgow has to do is do the maths.
With that massive gap to fill, watch polluters like Australia kick the can of climate change further down the road.
Glasgow will be all about big numbers and big ambitions but it boils down to some simple questions.
Can the leaders of the biggest polluting nations put forward targets to keep global temperatures down?
Can the richest countries agree on cutting down their reliance on coal?
Can they commit to £100billion a year to prevent developing nations going down the same carbon polluting route as the industrialised nations have?
The signs are not good. The Chinese president, representing the largest population, is not attending and China’s nationally determined contribution contains no new ambitions to keep 1.5C alive.
If the leaders of this generation fail the challenge of Glasgow then they will, as Nicola Sturgeon reminded them yesterday, find it hard to look the next generation in the eye.
It is unlikely the COP26 summit will end in total triumph or in abject failure but it does not look as if it will get a breakthrough on climate change demanded by environmentalists or the needs of the planet itself.
With the political scales weighed against change, and so many moving parts needed to align to get any kind of agreement, it is important to keep perspective and to keep protesting.
Peaceful expression of what the majority of the world wants – action on climate change – is well intended.
But solving the climate crisis is not just down to the suits and the lobbyists and the activists. To save the planet, we have to become more mindful of the planet and our effect on it.
The Record has given suggestions all this week on how we can all make a difference to global warming.
In a cold, wet November in Scotland, persuading people to give up the idea of more than one foreign flight a year or to favour public transport over the warmth of a car is a hard sell, we admit.
But, if we are to keep 1.5 alive, we have to be as hard judges of our own personal climate change agenda as we are of our leaders.
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