You may have heard of COP conventions, the previous convention COP26 was held in Glasgow, Scotland and this years one COP27 has been held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
COP is short for Conference of the Parties which is officially known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This started in 1994 and the first COP, COP1 was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995. From our understanding, the convention serves as a benchmark for countries to adopt policies and measures that are serious in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and to report periodically on this. Currently 198 countries are apart of this convention. Within them192 of those countries are part of the Kyoto Protocol which is a more concrete commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reporting periodically through agreed individual targets. In addition, in 2015 at the COP21 convention the Paris agreement was formed which is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It works on a 5 year cycle, by 2020 the196 countries that had become part of it had to submit ways they were going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also actions they would take in resilience to impacts of rising temperatures.
There is a lot involved in these conventions, agreements and communication around efforts in countries reducing their emissions, for us though, from the outside looking in at these conventions it is good to have some kind of perspective on what they're all about; because if you are reading this blog, your country probably is part of COP.
To check out more information visit https://unfccc.int/
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