Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP)

Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP)

The COP is regarded as thetop decision-making body of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework on Climate Change); the supreme authority was created in 1995 and held its first session in Berlin. COP membership is drawn from all states which are parties to UNFCC. The COP was bestowed with the mandate of reviewing the implementation of documents or obligations adopted by COP, performs institutional tasks and administrative decisions for effective implementation of the convection (https://unfccc.int/)

The Conference of parties is tasked with reviewing all communications from nations and inventories of emission submitted by state parties, assesses the outcome of the measures undertaken and the advance made to achieve the objective of the Convention.

Initially, the COP meetings were scheduled to be heldin Bonnannually, which is the official headquarter for the COP secretariat,but the Parties voted to be rotating the meetings in another member state’s cities. The parties also agreed rotational of the Presidency is among the five recognized regions  by UN which are Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Central, Eastern Europe and Western Europe (UNFCCC handbook, 2006).

Article 7.2 of the convection mandated the COP was with several responsibilities for the effective implementation of the assigned roles.  The particular functionsare but not limited to;

1. the examination of the Parties’ commitments in the implementation of the convection objectives, formulation of climate change policies and new scientific finding;
2. promote and facilitate the exchange of information on measuresadopted by Parties to address climate change and its effects;
3. facilitate the coordination of rules taken by Parties to address climate change and its implications, if requested to do so by two or more Parties;
4. promote and guide the development and refinement of comparablemethodologies for activities related to implementing the Convention, suchas preparing inventories of GHG emissions and removals and evaluating the effectiveness of measures to limit emissions and enhance removals;
5. assess the implementation, check the effects of actions and progress made to achieve the objective of the convection, and finally adopt the report for publication.
6. to make recommendations on matters about the implementation of convection, mobilize financial resources, review any statements, and any other function assigned to achieve its objectives. (http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/publications/handbook.pdf, 2018)

History of the COPs on Climate Change

Source: UNFCCC Handbook

Available at: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/publications/handbook.pdf

Achievements of the conference of parties

The United Nations Conferences on Climate Change had been held yearly for the last twenty years are formally in the framework of UNFCCC. United Nations Framework Convention on climate change formalized the Conference of parties in the year 1995. It was mandated to assess the progress dealing with climate change, establish a legally binding obligation for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions( https://unfccc.int/). Since the first COP in 1995, there have been registered successes in the last two decades and the most important milestones reached in each conference will be analyzed below:

Berlin, 1995:  COP 1. It marked the first conference where the state parties agreed to be holding annual meetings to control global warming and reduce GHGs

Kyoto. 1997: COP 3. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted with commitments to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in all industrialized countries

Bali, 2007COP 13.: This was the meeting where roadmaps for setting a timetable for negotiating new international agreements to replace the Kyoto protocol and include other countries apart from developed ones.

Copenhagen, 2009:  COP 15. The parties agreed to keep global warming below 2ºC, where the developed countries committed themselves in financing developing countries to combat climate change.

Cancun, 2010: COP16. The meeting agreements marked the formalization of commitments in Copenhagen, and GCF, which was created to enhance climate actions in developing countries.

Durban, 2011: COP17: There was an agreement for all countries, including the USA and emerging economies like China, Brazil, India, and South Africa, to start reducing emissions. A global negotiation was started and which is expected to come into force in 2020

Doha, 2012:  COP18. Kyoto Protocol was extended until 2020 but there were objections from developed countries like the US, China, Russia and Canada.

Lima, 2014, COP20: There was an agreement by all countries to develop and share their commitments to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Paris, 2015, COP21: The Paris Agreement was unanimously adopted by all state parties to keep global warming below two ºC above pre-industrial, and efforts increased to limit it to below 1.5 ºC.

Marrakesh, 2016, COP22: the negotiation resulted in three documents called the “Marrakesh Action Proclamation,” which was to strengthen climate collaboration for the period up to 2020.

Bonn, 2017, COP23: the meeting achieved various pacts such as; creation of Paris Rulebook which explained in details how Paris agreements was  implemented; “Talanoa Dialogue Platform” allowed all member countries to be sharing experiences and participation indigenous communities, and finally adoption of Gender Action Plan to ensure involvement of women in climate change

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT COP OF THE LAST 20 YEARS? WHY?

References