Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The international political response to climate change began with the adoption of the UNFCCC in 1992, which set out a framework for action aimed at stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” The Convention, which entered into force on 21 March 1994, now has 197 parties.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements.

The last COP (COP 24) took place in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018. The main goal of these talks is to provide a next step from current commitments by developing a path toward an agree­ment that would achieve considerable emission reductions from all major economies and poorer countries.

COP21, Paris, December 2015

In 2015 COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, aimed to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, to keep global warming below 2°C.

The conference involved around 50,000 participants including 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society. As of January 2019, 194 UNFCCC members have signed the treaty with 172 of those countries fully ratifying it. The agreement aims to:

• Hold the increase in global temperatures to 2°C
• Increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, without threatening food production
• Make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development

See the latest COP meetings and their locations here.

Future of Paris Agreement

After leaving in 2020, the USA is set to rejoin the Paris agreement in 2021.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries established an enhanced transparency framework (ETF). Under ETF, starting in 2024, countries will report transparently on actions taken and progress in climate change mitigation, adaptation measures and support provided or received. It also provides for international procedures for the review of the submitted reports. The information gathered through the ETF will feed into the Global stocktake which will assess the collective progress towards the long-term climate goals. This will lead to recommendations for countries to set more ambitious plans in the next round.