What is COP?
The UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) is a global summit on climate change. ‘Parties’ is used as a descriptor for countries. The first COP conference, or COP1, was held in 1995 in Berlin, and COP takes place each year unless the Parties to the Convention agree otherwise. For example, 2023 saw the 28th occurrence of the conference, which is why that year’s conference was referred to as COP28.
COP is the world’s most significant summit on climate change and is attended by representatives of the countries that have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – a treaty agreed in 1994. In 2023 this was 197 countries, plus the European Union.
The COP comes together to review the implementation of the UNFCCC, which has the ultimate goal of limiting human impact on our climate system. One key task is to monitor each country’s progress towards their individual targets, known as Nationally Determined Contributions.
Why are Nationally Determined Contributions important?
Every country attending climate COPs determine, plan, and regularly report on their climate change adaptations through their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
NDCs are non-binding plans made by individual countries. They outline the work being done by that country towards emission reduction targets and other measures set out in the Paris Agreement.
The goals laid out in each country’s NDC include a commitment to working towards being climate neutral by 2050, limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and increasing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees, as well as reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases.
Individual countries decide their own contributions to the aims of the Paris Agreement, though Article 3 requires NDCs to be ‘ambitious efforts’ towards ‘achieving the purpose of this Agreement’ and to ‘represent a progression over time’.
What is Practical Action’s role at COP?
In 2016, Practical Action was invited to attend COP22 as an official observer, and a delegation from Practical Action has attended the conference in this capacity from COP22 – COP28 (at time of writing, COP29 planning is under way).
Our role at the COP climate conferences is to amplify the voices of the people we work with, and to share what we have learned from those who are already adapting to extreme climate events. Our staff are often part of national delegations, directly influencing the negotiations. We also influence the outcomes by making sure the most vulnerable are heard and focusing on ensuring more support and finance is directed to meeting their needs.
We provide evidence and technical support to governmental delegations, participate in events, and speak to the media. We showcase bottom-up adaptive work by people on the front line of climate change, which works with nature, not against it. We call for a focus on the approaches and resources needed to scale change and enable communities to adapt and deal with the loss and damage that they are already experiencing.
Our experience in helping people on the front line of climate change to adapt sustainably to the new challenges they face has never been more relevant, nor more necessary. Developing nations are disproportionally impacted by climate change so our aim is to ensure that no one is left behind. We bring a diversity of views and expertise from our work with communities across South Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The way in which the world responds to the climate emergency is crucial to all our futures and we know that those living on the front line are now facing an emergency of unprecedented proportions. We will continue to work with many others to support, demonstrate and scale the solutions required for positive futures for the people on the front line of climate change and get finance redirected to climate solutions that deliver for people and nature.
Learn more about the next COP conference, COP29, in Azerbaijan
