What is COP (Conference of the Parties)

COP stands for Conference of the Parties — the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 🌍

In simple terms

It’s the annual global climate summit where almost every country on Earth meets to negotiate and decide collective actions to tackle climate change.

🏛️ Key Details

• “Parties” = the countries that have signed the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) (currently around 198 countries).

• The first COP (COP1) was held in 1995 in Berlin, Germany.

• The most famous COP is COP21 (Paris, 2015) — where countries adopted the Paris Agreement, committing to limit global warming to well below 2 °C, ideally 1.5 °C.

• Each year’s meeting is numbered:

  • COP26 (2021) – Glasgow, UK 🇬🇧

  • COP27 (2022) – Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt 🇪🇬

  • COP28 (2023) – Dubai, UAE 🇦🇪

  • COP30 (2025) – Belém, Brazil 🇧🇷 (planned)

🌡️ COP Purpose

At each COP, nations discuss:

• Emission reduction pledges (NDCs — Nationally Determined Contributions)

• Climate finance for developing countries

• Adaptation and resilience strategies

• Technology and capacity building

  
  

In short:

COP = Global climate conference where countries decide how to combat climate change together under the UNFCCC agreement.

Reference source and additional readings

1. https://unfccc.int/process/parties-non-party-stakeholders/parties-convention-and-observer-states

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#UNFCCC

#NDCs

#GHGs

#Emissions

#Climate

#ParisAgreement