As tens of thousands of delegates from across the globe have descended upon Baku, Azerbaijan for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the annual summit has faced growing criticism for greenwashing, virtue signaling and propping up the fossil fuel industry — prompting the question, is COP still able to lead in global climate action?

The annual climate summit has been held every year since 1995 — except 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic — serving as a formal meeting of the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to measure progress and coordinate multilateral responses to climate change among developed and developing countries.