What does COP stand for?
COP stands for the ‘Conference of the Parties’.
What is COP 26?
COP is the supreme decision making body of world governments that meets every year to forge a global response to the climate emergency.
COP 26 is the 26th meeting of this body.
Under the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 197 countries are treaty-bound to ‘avoid dangerous climate change’ and come together each year to find ways to ‘stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere’.
Who attends COP?
A variety of governmental and non-governmental representatives attend COP. These include:
• Civil servants from various departments: e.g. Environment/Climate Change, Finance, Development, Foreign Office, Education
• Politicians, including World Leaders, Heads of State and Ministers, and representatives of devolved governments
• The United Nations System and its Specialized Agencies, such as UN Development Programme (UNDP), World Health Organisation (WHO) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP
• Groups from across civil society including, environmental NGOs (ENGO), Business and Industry (BINGO), Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations (IPO), Research and Independent NGOs (RINGO), Trade Unions (TUNGO), Local Gov & Municipal Authorities (LGMA), Youth NGOs (YOUNGO), and Farmers/
Since 2016, the UNFCCC secretariat also recognises the following groups as informal NGO groups:
• Faith Based Organizations (FBOs);
• Education and Capacity Building and Outreach NGOs (ECONGO);
• Parliamentarians.
Alongside the official attendees, the world’s media gathers at COP to report on the negotiations and talks. Media representatives are given access to the Conference Hall.
Special ‘observers’ are also granted permission to attend. Observers have no formal part in the negotiations but do occasionally make interventions in the negotiating process. For example, COP25 was attended by the climate activist, Greta Thunberg, who gave a speech to the conference’s gathered delegates.
Protests also now regularly accompany the annual COP event.
What happens at COP?
A key task for the annual Conference of the Parties is to review the national reports and emissions targets submitted by governments and attendees. Based on this information, COP assesses the effects of the measures taken by the various governments and the progress made in achieving the ultimate objective of the Convention.
Official negotiations take place over two weeks. The first week is usually dedicated to technical negotiations by government officials. The second week is dominated by the high level Ministerial and Heads of State meetings. Key negotiations take place in the plenary halls, side meeting rooms and Party offices.
The official negotiations attract a wide range of stakeholders to the venue, creating in effect a parallel conference and exhibition. This allows for the exchange of ideas and the promotion of innovations to an international audience.
COP 26
COP 26 was originally scheduled to take place from 9 to 19 November 2020, in Glasgow but was postponed to 1 to 12 November 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
COP26 represents the biggest summit the UK has ever hosted. It is being described as the most significant climate event since the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, a UK Cabinet Minister, is the President of COP26 will preside over the COP26 negotiations. Sharma outlined his priority action areas for COP26 as:
1. Adaptation and resilience: ‘Helping people, economies and the environment adapt and prepare for the impacts of climate change.’
2. Nature: ‘Safeguarding ecosystems, protecting natural habitats and keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.’
3. Energy transition: ‘Seizing the massive opportunities of cheaper renewables and storage.’
4. Accelerating the move to zero-carbon road transport: ‘By 2040, over half of new car sales worldwide are projected to be electric.’
5. Finance: ‘We need to unleash the finance which will make all of this possible and power the shift to a zero-carbon economy.’
In 2021, the former Downing Street Director of Communications, Allegra Stratton, was placed in charge of handling the media on behalf of the Prime Minister at the COP26 event.
The challenges being faced by the COP
COP was set up by the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to advance climate ambition and create a globally co-ordinated strategy to tackle global warming. While COP has made such steps, climate change continues to impact, and climate risks are increasing around the world.
Today, the world is already 1.1°C warmer than it was at the onset of the industrial revolution, and that is having a significant impact on the planet, and on people’s lives. If current trends continue then global temperatures can be expected to rise by 3.2 to 3.9°C this century. This would bring wide-ranging and destructive climate impacts.
At 416 parts/million, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, as of May 2020, is the highest it has been in human history.
Does COP ever achieve anything?
COP is unique in being the largest international conference on climate change, but that does not mean this format of international cooperation has gone without criticism since the first conference in 1995.
There have been issues with the accessibility of COPs, and the ‘Global South’ (Latin America, Asia, Oceania, and Africa) is often said to be underestimated in negotiations and policy spaces.
COP 25, held in Madrid, became the longest on record, finishing two days later than was planned after two weeks of tense negotiations. One main focus was the climate action activist, Greta Thunberg, who arrived at the conference via boat to Lisbon. There were also large protests, angry at the lack of progress, across the Spanish capital.
In Madrid, countries failed to agree on areas like offsetting carbon and financial aid for developing nations. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said he felt ‘disappointed’ by how little was actually achieved at COP25. Others called the conference a failure.
After lots of discussion at COP 24, held in Poland, an agreement for a new international climate regime was reached. The agreement set out that each country must report their emissions every two years, and demonstrate they had taken steps to cut them. The new regime will begin in 2024.
However, it was at COP 21- ‘the Paris Climate Conference’ – that the most significant step towards climate protections was taken. ‘The Paris Agreement’ introduced a legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted by all 196 Parties in attendance.
The agreement says nations must:
• Reduce the amount of harmful greenhouse gasses produced and increase renewable types of energy like wind, solar and wave power
• Keep global temperature increase “well below” 2C (3.6F) and to try to limit it to 1.5C
• Review progress made on the agreement every five years
• Spend $100 billion dollars a year in climate finance to help poorer countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future.
The agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016.
The COP presidency
Of all the official officers who provide for COP meetings, none is more important than the President. This post is generally held by the Minister of Environment from the host government.
The COP President is supposed to be neutral and impartial; they open and close meetings, determine the speaker order, rule on points of order as well as other administrative tasks. Critically, the President provides political leadership, acting as a facilitator in negotiations, as a consultant on the issues and as a conference tone-setter.
Previous COPs
The first COP (COP1) was held in 1995 in Berlin. Since then, it has been held in:
• Geneva, Switzerland; COP 2 (1996)
• Kyoto, Japan; COP 3 (1997)
• Buenos Aires, Argentina; COP 4 (1998)
• Bonn, Germany; COP 5 (1999)
• The Hague, Netherlands; COP 6 (2000)
• Marrakech, Morocco; COP 7 (2001)
• New Delhi, India; COP 8 (2002)
• Milan, Italy; COP 9 (2003)
• Buenos Aires, Argentina; COP 10 (2004)
• Montreal, Canada; COP 11 (2005)
• Nairobi, Kenya; COP 12 (2006)
• Bali, Indonesia; COP 13 (2007)
• Poznań, Poland; COP 14 (2008)
• Copenhagen, Denmark; COP 15 (2009)
• Cancún, Mexico; COP 16 (2010)
• Durban, South Africa; COP 17 (2011)
• Doha, Qatar; COP 18 (2012)
• Warsaw, Poland; COP 19 (2013)
• Lima, Peru; COP 20 (2014)
• Paris, France; COP 21 (2015)
• Marrakech, Morocco; COP 22 (2016)
• Bonn, Germany; COP 23 (2017)
• Katowice, Poland; COP 24 (2018)
• Madrid, Spain; COP 25 (2019)
