FIVE HUNDRED AND THREE. That is the number of fossil fuel lobbyists who have been at Cop26 this week, making it a larger bloc than any of the international delegations.

According to analysis by Global Witness, they represent 100 different polluters and outnumber the combined total of the eight delegations from the countries worst affected by climate change in the last two decades — Puerto Rico, Myanmar, Haiti, the Philippines, Mozambique, the Bahamas, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

They haven’t travelled all of this way because they want to stop the climate crisis. They have done it because they know that any meaningful change will impact their profits.

Unfortunately they aren’t the only ones resisting any change. The British government is one of many powerful governments that have talked a good game but failed to deliver.

The week before Cop26 Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled one of the most regressive and anti-climate Budgets for a long time.

With £21 billion for roads, a freeze on fuel duty and a cut on air passenger duty for domestic flights, it was clearly not a Budget with the planet in mind.

There are some positive changes that are coming from Cop26. The leaders in attendance have agreed to phase out coal, while reducing deforestation and methane.

But the overall agreement and package do not go anywhere near far enough. They do not live up to the urgency of the crisis we are facing.

It hasn’t helped that so many of the most important voices have been outside the room.

According to the Cop26 Coalition — which represents indigenous movements and vulnerable communities around the world — around two-thirds of those it was helping to travel to Glasgow were unable to make it due to a combination of visa and accreditation problems, unequal access to Covid vaccines and unaffordable accommodation.

That is why some campaigners, including Friends of the Earth, have called it “the most exclusionary Cop ever.”

Yet it is those voices we need to be hearing a lot more from. Like the pandemic, climate change does not impact everyone equally.

It underlines and exacerbates existing inequalities. The countries that will be hit hardest are those in the global South that have contributed least to the crisis.

It is not just climate action that our movement has to call for. It is also climate justice.

For many people climate change is not a threat they are trying to avert, it is a crisis they are already living through.

Many are already feeling a devastating impact, with analysis from the World Health Organisation showing that 150,000 people are dying every year from causes relating to climatic change.

Governments in the North need to be supporting those that are suffering as a result of our many years of runaway carbon emissions and exploitation of resources.

The 2009 Cop conference committed $100 billion of funding from the global North to the South for adaptation and to mitigate the impact of climate change.

This may sound great, but less than a quarter of it has actually been delivered. And it is but a drop in the ocean of what is needed for mitigation and adaptation.

This week the Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific analysis website, said that commitments made during the summit will still lead to at least a 2.4°C rise by 2100, which would mean a catastrophic level of global warming.

There is some political push to take action to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5°C, but even this would represent a death sentence for many.

More hopeful than the noises coming from inside Cop26 are the protests outside of the ring of steel.

Tens of thousands of young people and activists have taken to the streets in a show of support and solidarity.

I was proud to march with them as we called for system change and far-reaching climate action.

Unfortunately the response from the police was often heavy-handed and over the top.

The right to protest is essential, especially when our future is on the line.

Yet shameful scenes emerged of protesters being “kettled” against their will, including children and a mother with a baby in a pram.

My colleague Ross Greer MSP and I wrote to Police Scotland demanding an explanation.

We do not believe that kettling should ever be used to punish or deter protests. It is wholly inappropriate to use this tactic on peaceful protesters, let alone children.

With leaders leaving Glasgow, it is important that things do not go back to business as usual. I know that the people I was marching with will continue to work for change, and it is vital that our leaders do too.

Greta Thunberg and the other young people know that talk is easy, but it won’t save our planet. What is needed is the kind of change that won’t happen on its own.

Yes, it will need MSPs and other parliamentarians to push for it, but that doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

The electoral successes of Green parties and other progressive voices is only possible because of the galvanising power of movements for social and environmental justice and a desire for change.

But change doesn’t come from Parliament alone. Electing good politicians to positions of power is vital — but our movements need to keep one foot in Parliament and one foot on the streets.

So many of the ideas that have been discussed at Cop26 simply wouldn’t be on the table if it wasn’t for the protests and pressure from below.

It is not just the 503 fossil fuel lobbyists that have too much of a stake in things staying as they are. We have a whole system against us.

That is why Cop26 cannot be an end in itself. We cannot make do with the limited reforms that have been agreed or even trust that they will be implemented by themselves.

A fairer, greener world is possible, but it will take a lot more than warm words and hot air.

Maggie Chapman is a Scottish Green MSP for North East Scotland.