What is the COP all about?In 1992, in the heat and air conditioning of Rio de Janeiro, the head of states got together and adopted the the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This was the first attempt by the United Nations to start dealing with the issue of man-made climate change on an international level and it went into force in 1994.
Their stated objective was « the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at the level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system ». Ever since, all 195 parties of the Convention have held an annual summit, called the Conference of the Parties (COP), with the aim of achieving this objective. This year's COP21 is therefore the 21st summit that will be held since the creation of the UNFCCC and since the realisation that governments should work together to do something about our planet’s ill health. |
Why is it taking so long? |
As we all know, it is not logic or the care for people and nature that rule these conferences. Powerful and financial interests dominate the ongoing negotiations, with small stakeholders often unheard. This is a brief summary of some of the COPs.
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What's their plan for Paris? |
Once again, the parties of the UN convention will meet for the 21st COP, from November 30th to December 12th. The idea is to discuss a new climate deal and 20 000 people are expected, which includes politicians, delegates, observers, etc. This upcoming meeting will be one of the largest international conferences held on climate change ever.
Many obstacles are looming ahead of COP21. First of all, only few countries have submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) so far. Some scientific groups, such as the Climate Action Tracker, have already assessed the first climate pledges and their conclusions show that they are not enough to stay within the 2°C limit. Other observers assert that the submission calendar will give too little time to be able to discuss a new treaty at the Conference of Paris. Hence the next COP, which will be held in Marrakesh, will be needed if the Parties will want to reach a genuine agreement. What’s more, several crucial meetings are taking place this year such as in Geneva in February, and in Bonn in October where the parties of the Convention need to simplify the negotiation text that came out of COP20 in Lima, and that will be presented and signed in Paris. But the draft of the treaty has swollen from 37 to 86 pages. Many legal specialists also fear that the form of the agreement remains an important issue that has not been sorted out yet. Finally, the Green Climate Fund, which was supposed to be the cornerstone of climate finance efforts is failing to reach its goal of $100 billion a year by 2020. Hence, the world governments have been trying to come to a legally binding agreement for more than twenty years now! Despite the importance and the gravity of the issue, they have indeed failed to do so, and seem not to be willing to stand up for our planet and for human societies. As we have seen above, many difficulties must be overcome in order to come to an effective and fair agreement in order to contain global warming to 2°C within the UNFCCC process. |