Are mainstream climate summits like COP effective at addressing climate change?

Context

The Conference of the Parties (COP) summits are annual United Nations climate negotiations where nearly 200 countries gather to set global climate policy and coordinate emissions reductions. Since the first COP in 1995, these meetings have produced landmark agreements like the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, yet critics argue their outcomes often lack binding enforcement mechanisms and fail to match the scale of climate action needed. The debate centers on whether these diplomatic forums drive meaningful change or serve mainly as symbolic gestures while emissions continue rising.