Fate Of Annual United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COPs)

"We are in a situation where the emission reductions that should have happened haven't. It's important to remember that COPs don't magically solve the problem. Every country, particularly the G20 nations, must be more ambitious with their nationally determined contributions, committing to targets that keep 1.5 degrees in sight. Currently, we’re on course for 2.7 degrees." - Jennifer Morgan, State Secretary And Special Envoy For International Climate Action, Federal Foreign Office Of Germany.

Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of our time. If the world is to meet the agreed climate goals within the available time frame, we need mature, readily deployable solutions. 

World governments, conference of the parties or COPs, meet every year to control the climate crisis; for this they organise global discussions and try to find probable solutions. Under the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, every nation is treaty-bound for climate action to change climate change and find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally. The COPs are the only forum on the climate crisis in which the opinions and concerns of the poorest nations carry equal weight to that of the biggest economies. According to the UNFCCC, one of the key tasks for the COP is to review the national communications and emission inventories submitted by Parties. Based on this information, the COP assesses the effects of the measures taken by Parties and the progress made in achieving the ultimate objective of the Convention. Agreement can only come by consensus, in COPs. 

Since the first COP talks took place in 1995, the climate crisis has evolved from a future threat to an everyday reality. Let’s look back and evaluate the milestones achieved by the main COPs since the first was celebrated in Berlin in 1995.  

The COP26 reaffirmed the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of “limiting the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C”. Other commitments of COP26 included phasing down coal-fired power generation – the first time this has been explicitly included in UN climate talk decisions. There were also agreements to reduce methane emissions, reverse deforestation and land degradation, and pledge more finance to help developing countries cope with climate change.  

Egyptian COP27 Presidency has defined the summit’s four key goals as: mitigation, adaptation, finance, and collaboration.  

The five key issues of COP27 to watch are nature, food, water, industry decarbonization and climate adaptation.  

Climate finance has an important role to play here. Wealthy countries need to look at what they're going to do to support countries already suffering loss and damage. 

Meanwhile, the Amazon is burning, bush fires are raging in Australia and America, climate chaos is causing a humanitarian disaster every week, but our global plan is to have some more meetings. Many of the net-zero pledges by companies are just greenwashing. They continue emitting greenhouse gases and continue business as usual but hiding this through by falsely declaring themselves eco-friendly by planting trees and other such activities. COPs need to expose greenwashing and fix accountability of companies to stop such practices which are making the climate crisis worse. 

We need to take dynamic steps for a better future, so that short-term interests of a few won't dominate the long-term interests of the planet and its environment and biodiversity. We need to frame such policies which would reduce emissions, and protect the lives of all including the most vulnerable and the poorest on Earth. 

We should stop the use of fossil fuels, and should switch our investments from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy. Governments should stop subsidies to fossil fuels. All corporations should be made accountable to reduce their emissions to net-zero. 

We should never forget that no-action will worsen the climate crisis. Our efforts will decide our fate on Earth. Success is granted through hard work, dedication, and implementation of right actions and decisions at the right time and place. Success is never attained by luck-by-chance. It is in our hands to decide whether we choose the worst future or the best. Today's actions will decide our tomorrow. Let's work for the next generation's best future. 

Article by Prabhat Misra.