Two years of planning, 40,000 delegates, 190 world leaders, dozens of meetings and a whole world on tenterhooks: after 12 hectic days in Glasgow, the organisers of the Cop26Cop stands for  Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change climate summit have released a draft of leaders' agreements on how to save the planet.

So what do the pledges amount to? Not enough, say worried scientists, after a critical new Climate Action Tracker (CAT) report concluded that despite pledges, the world is still on track for 2.4C of global warming.

Experts warn that missing the 1.5C targetThe Paris Agreement is an agreement made by nearly all the world's nations in 2015 to cut greenhouse gas emissions and "pursue efforts" to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C.  set at Cop21 in Paris in 2015 will have devastating consequences. But what does 2.4C warming mean in practice? Here is The Day's twelve point checklist for what to expect if the world heats up by 2.4C: 

1. Coral reefs vanish. Marine biologists once thought Australia's Great Barrier ReefThe world's largest coral reef system found off the coast of Australia. was too big to fail. But if heating continues, 99% of coral will turn a ghostly white and die.

2. Hellish heatwaves. One billion people worldwide could be affected by fatal heat. In London, 140 people die in summer heatwaves ever year.

3. Crop failure. In extreme temperatures, maize and wheat wither. Land becomes unsuitable for farming and millions face food scarcity.

4. Deadly droughts. By 2100, more than 400 million urban residents will be exposed to severe droughts. 

5. Wild weather. Once rare hurricanes become common events, buildings and roads built to handle the climate of the past fail.

6. No more Arctic ice. At 2.4C, the Arctic ice melts every decade. Polar bears lose their homes. 

7. Sea levels rise. As the ice melts, London, New York and Sydney are all at risk. Fish swim through the streets of Miami. Low-lying islands face an existential threat.

8. Refugee crisisIn 2015, more than a million people arrived in Europe by land and by sea, leaving many countries struggling to cope with such an influx. The vast majority were escaping conflict in Syria.. It is too wet to live in Shanghai and too hot to live in the Middle East. By 2050, 216 million people are forced to flee.

9. Tropical diseases spread. Mosquitoes move north, spreading malariaA serious parasite infection transmitted by mosquito bites. It is one of the world's most lethal diseases.. 

10. Key insects die. Nearly one fifth of all invertebrateA cold-blooded animal with no backbone. Insects, spiders, worms and crabs are all invertebrates.  species lose half of their natural habitats. Bees, which pollinate crops, are in particular danger. 

11. Permafrost thaws. An extra 2.5 million square kilometres of frozen permafrostAny ground that remains completely frozen for at least two years. Permafrost covers large regions of the Earth.  melts. This leads to an irreversible loss of stored carbonCarbon is the fourth most common element in the universe. Other forms of carbon include graphite and diamond., making global warming even worse.

12. Economic collapse. Millions lose their jobs in tourism and farming. Climate change wipes $23tn (£17tn) from the global economy. 

There is no doubt: it is a terrible picture of life. "This new calculation is like a telescope trained on an asteroid heading for Earth," declared one Greenpeace director yesterday. 

For climate activists, the implications are clear: the time to act is now. Optimists say we are heading in the right direction: in 2015, CAT estimated that climate policies would lead to warming of 3.6C.

"We've run down the clock but it's never too late," says one prominent climate scientist. "1.7C is better than 1.9C which is better than 3C. The action is far too slow at the moment, but we can still act." 

Of course, say some. World leaders have spent millions of pounds and thousands of hours organising summits like Cop26 and still failed to come up with a meaningful plan to prevent climate change. It is completely mad that we are choosing to extinguish ourselves rather than face up to the problem we have created. 

Do not despair, say others. This is how the world works. Progress is not always linear. Change takes place at an uneven and often frustrating pace, but it is happening. Leaders have agreed to meet again next November to make tougher pledges. We should never give up on the planet.