Conferences of the Parties (COPs) are annual meetings organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to discuss issues related to global warming and climate change.
The UNFCCC was created in 1992 during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, with the aim of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and avoiding dangerous impacts on the global climate. Since then, COPs have been held every year with the aim of assessing countries' progress in implementing the Convention and adopting new international commitments and agreements to address climate change.
The first COP was held in Berlin in 1995, and since then more than 25 conferences have been held. COPs are often the scene of intense negotiations between countries, with the creation of international cooperation networks, which allow countries to develop cooperation ties and establish partnerships.
The COPs considered most important are COP3 in 1997, which resulted in the Kyoto Protocol, and COP21 in 2015, which resulted in the Paris Agreement.
The importance of COPs has increased significantly over the years as the urgency of tackling climate change has become more pressing. COPs are crucial because they establish a basis for coordinated action at the global level and encourage countries to commit to climate change targets. During these meetings, countries report on their actions and progress, and share information, experiences and best practices in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
As scientific evidence and the consequences of climate change become more evident, the pressure and need for more significant actions by countries grows, making COPs an important forum to encourage the adoption of more ambitious policies and actions to reduce and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. Therefore, it is essential that governments, organizations and citizens remain engaged in the discussions and actions that emerge from COPs, so that together they can build a more sustainable and resilient future.
Check below the list of the respective locations and years of COPs around the world:
- COP 1 – Berlin, Germany, 1995
- COP 2 – Geneva, Switzerland, 1996
- COP 3 – Kyoto, Japan, 1997
- COP 4 – Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1998
- COP 5 – Bonn, Germany, 1999
- COP 6 – The Hague, Netherlands, 2000
- COP 7 – Marrakesh, Morocco, 2001
- COP 8 – New Delhi, India, 2002
- COP 9 – Milan, Italy, 2003
- COP 10 – Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2004
- COP 11 – Montreal, Canada, 2005
- COP 12 – Nairobi, Kenya, 2006
- COP 13 – Bali, Indonesia, 2007
- COP 14 – Poznan, Poland, 2008
- COP 15 – Copenhagen, Denmark, 2009
- COP 16 – Cancún, Mexico, 2010
- COP 17 – Durban, South Africa, 2011
- COP 18 – Doha, Qatar, 2012
- COP 19 – Warsaw, Poland, 2013
- COP 20 – Lima, Peru, 2014
- COP 21 – Paris, France, 2015
- COP 22 – Marrakesh, Morocco, 2016
- COP 23 – Bonn, Germany, 2017
- COP 24 – Katowice, Poland, 2018
- COP 25 – Madrid, Spain, 2019
- COP 26 – Glasgow, UK, 2021 (originally scheduled for 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
- COP 27 – Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, 2022
