It has been evident for years that huge and growing energy demands by China, India and other emerging nations and the Net Zero agenda being pursued by the USA, UK, EU and other western countries are incompatible when it comes to mitigation of climate change. It also appears that an agreement to resolve this incompatibility may be insurmountable However, if the price for a COP26 compromise is the abandonment of the 1.5C goal, the West’s 2050 Net Zero agenda itself would become futile and self-destructive in face of China’s unrestrained expansion of cheap energy and its rise to global dominance. Clearly, all signs point to adaptation as opposed to mitigation as the best and perhaps only means for tackling climate change.