Conference of parties all events
[edit] About the Conference of the Parties or COP events?
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is an event organised by the United Nations (UN), an international organisationfounded in 1945. Attendees of COP events includes representatives of all countries that are signatories (or 'Parties') to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
There are 198 parties that have now ratified that convention, two countries that are non-member observer states (the Holy See and the State of Palestine), and three thast have not including Iran, Libya and Yemen. There are COP events that can be found on other topics, though their relationship to the UN is often unclear and should be checked, but the term COP is generally affiliated with the UN.
The UNFCCC and the reference to UN COPs stemmed from the Rio Summit which was the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the 'Earth Summit' held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Issues discussed at the Earth Summit were:
- Patterns of development that create pressure on the environment.
- Protection of the atmosphere (energy use, climate change, ozone depletion, transboundary air pollution).
- Protection of land resources (deforestation, desertification, land degradation, and drought).
[edit] Climate change, biological diversity and desertification COPs
The issues discussed at the Rio Summit and creation of the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFC) in turn created three intrinsically linked strands or conventions which have and continue to hold COPs:
- The UN convention on climate change (UNFCC), most commonly referred to as COP or UNCCCOP.
- The UN Convention on biological diversity (UNCBD or CBD), also sometimes referred to as COP, BIOCOP or EXCOP.
- The UN Convention to combat desertification (UNCCD) also sometimes referred to as COP.
A Joint Liaison Group was set up to boost cooperation between the three conventions, with the ultimate aim of developing synergies in their activities on issues of mutual concern, namely preventing dangerous human interference with climate systems. While figures in all areas vary over time and source, the message for the built environment is relatively similar:
The World Economic Forum in 2020, as well as others, estimated that the built environment sector was responsible for nearly 30% of biodiversity loss globally. (The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and What it Means for Business. January 2023)
The World Green Building Council and others suggest buildings are responsible for around 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions, with around one-quarter relating to materials and the rest to energy-related emissions. (Bringing embodied carbon upfront WGBC 2019)
Desertification is a direct result of climatic variations caused by carbon emissions and human activities that reduce natural infrastructure. This can be as a result of supporting the built environment through direct development, agricultural activities, or material harvesting for fuel, construction, or food. The IPCC report with high confidence "Desertification is land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas, collectively known as drylands, resulting from many factors, including human activities and climatic variations. The range and intensity of desertification have increased in some dryland areas over the past several decades" (IPPC special report on Desertification).
The COPs are negotiations at the highest international governance level; however, agreements made during these events should necessarily feed into the individual country governmental policy, in turn impacting regional, and local level policy, as well as feeding into the community and industry. The design, construction, use, and decommissioning of buildings connects to all three themes directly as well as indirectly, from the materials used to extract, manufacture, supply, and construct the built environment, to where buildings are built, where they sit within development policies, how much and on what energy they run, and how they shape the behaviour of people using them.
[edit] All previous UN COP conventions on climate change.
https://www.cop28.com/en/news-and-media | |
Establishiung a dedicated fund for loss and damage. Maintaining a clear intention to keep 1.5°C within reach. Holding businesses and institutions to account. Mobilizing more financing for developing countries. Making the pivot toward implementation. | |
Nations adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact, Finance for Climate Adaptation. Transparency and Reporting. | |
Guidelines on how international carbon markets will work (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement). Loss and damage suffered by developing nations due to climate change Finance for decarbonization. Finalized copy of the Katowice rulebook of the Paris Agreement. Prevent the double-counting of emissions reductions | |
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) enhance commitments by 2020. Outlined mitigating and adapting measures and financial support for climate action in developing countries. From 2024, parties to report their emissions (and progress in reducing them) every two years. Guidelines for the “global stocktake” pledge-and-review cycle, an opportunity for parties to report on their progress in meeting their goals. Developed countries commit of $100 billion annually from 2020 to fund climate action in developing countries. Under the Katowice Rulebook in November 2020 parties are to initiate “deliberations on setting a new collective quantified goal a floor of USD 100 billion per year, in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency of implementation and taking into account the needs and priorities of developing countries”. | |
Mitigation - food security was recognised. Adaptation - establishment of a loss and damage fund Collaboration. - Details to implement the Santiago Network. | |
Financial-centric decisions to finance and plan the actions to meet the targets of COP21. Developing countries affirming to commit to finance climate-focused steps with a budget of $100 billion. Green Climate Fund, Paris Agreement's Article 6: internationally transferable mitigation outcomes, new market mechanism to overtake the Kyoto Protocol and non-market approaches. Solidify Article 6 by 2018. Open and transparent dialogue with incoming presidency (Decision 1/CP.22, paragraph 16). Requiring 'facilitative dialogues' between all country parties to achieve the Paris Agreements' goals. | |
The Paris agreement. First universal agreement applicable to all 198 negotiating Parties committed to long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies. Fair and differentiated agreement depending on respective capabilities and different national circumstances. Sustainable and dynamic agreement to hold the increase in global average temperature to below 2°C and ensure efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C. A financial component to ensure international solidarity with the most vulnerable countries. Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC). mechanism working plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2025-2030, And adapting to or reducing vulnerability to climate change. | |
Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative. Adaptation issues elevated National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) recognized as pathway to. Support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to adaptation discussed and some comittment. Nazca Climate Action Portal launched to increase the visibility of climate action among cities, regions, companies and investors. Nauru and Tuvalu islands submitted to the Doha amendment, bringing Kyoto Protocol signatory Parties to 21 (144 needed). Consideration to link Climate Technology Centre and Network to the GCF and the UNFCCC Finance mechanism. The Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage was confirmed for two years. | |
Governments agreed to communicate respective contributions, finalized monitoring, reporting and verification arrangements for domestic action towards universal agreement in advance of Paris in 2015. Rulebook for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation agreed, together with measures to bolster forest preservation and a results-based payment system to promote forest protection. The Green Climate Fund, planned to be a major channel of financing for developing world action, will be ready for capitalization in the second half of 2014. agreed on a mechanism to address loss and damage caused by long-term climate change impacts. showcase for climate action by business, cities, regions and civil society. | |
Decisions on works of the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) for the establishment of a new international framework “basic arrangements for negotiations .. set up toward an agreement by 2015 on a new legal framework beyond 2020”. Amendments to the Kyoto Protocol and the subsequent termination of the AWG-KP. Decisions on long-term cooperation under the agreement and the subsequent termination of the AWG-LCA. Decisions on financing. COP decision on loss and damage associated with climate change impacts. | |
Agreed Ad-hoc Working Group “Durban Platform for Enhanced Action” is envisaged to result in a legally binding agreement encompassing all countries by 2015 and coming into effect by 2020, connected with a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Political compromise to keep Kyoto alive on a limited, transitional basis, pointing the way toward a new pact under the UNFCCC putting developed and developing countries on a more equal footing. | |
Set of decisions anchoring national mitigation pledges, steps to strengthen finance, transparency, and other elements of the multilateral climate framework, stalemate issues of previous international climate talks. | |
Copenhagen Accord – to cap the global temperature rise by committing to significant emission reductions and to raise funds to help the developing world address climate change. 188 governments agreed to new set of international goals for biodiversity called the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), committing to address the ongoing loss of terrestrial and marine biodiversity. Removing environmentally harmful subsidies, moving to sustainable use of biodiversity with protection of 30 percent of the earth's land and sea areas | |
The Hague Climate Change Conference and |
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[edit] All previous UN COP conventions on biological diversity.
[edit] All previous UN COP conventions on desertification.
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