What is COP?

 The UN Conference of the Parties (COP) is the UN's annual decision-making climate change meeting. 

What is COP?

The UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) is the UN's annual decision-making climate change meeting.

Past COPs Include:

• COP21 (2015, Paris): Countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C.

• COP28 (2023, Dubai): Included discussions on fossil fuel phase-out.

• This year's real life COP meets around a month after KeysMUN in Brazil.

Purpose of COP Meetings:

• Review progress in implementing past COP treaties.

• Negotiate new agreements or amendments.

• Set targets and action plans.

• Discuss specific global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and deforestation.

• Facilitate financing for environmental action.

How Are Decisions Made?

COPs operate by full consensus, meaning all parties must agree for decisions to be adopted, see below.

How does COP Work?

Consensus decision-making at a UN Conference of the Parties (COP) is a process designed to ensure that every country involved agrees on the final decision and text, even if that means making significant compromises and watered-down outcomes. In contrast, traditional ModelUN adopts resolutions through simple majority (or two-thirds supermajority votes) voting procedures. So, the typical UN process is more decisive but less inclusive than COP.

1. Informal Negotiations in Working Groups (KeysMUN Day 1):

Before reaching any final discussions and decisions in the formal plenary sessions, in a variety of smaller informal settings—such as working groups, delegates attempt to capture the interests and commitments of all parties involved in that working group in their draft resolution text. In KeysMUN, these working groups are certain blocs of countries with shared interests (see Committees page for more info). These committees still use the traditional elements of MUN: speaking list, moderated, and unmoderated sessions, but passing resolutions requires a consensus vote(100% agreement), unlike the usual 50% majority. So, the big difference is the added need to get to know the needs of every country, since the objection of any one delegate will mean no final text moves forward. Often, language in the resolution may be altered to be slightly more vague in order for the resolution to acquire a consensus vote.

2. Formal Negotiations in Plenary Sessions (KeysMUN Day 2):
This stage merges all the working groups from earlier, so while it will be a much bigger group, it will still use typical MUN procedure: speakers' list, moderated, and unmoderated sessions. However, this still requires full consensus among the now larger group, further highlighting the need to get to have an understanding of every country's stance and needs. This is because any country can veto the resolution. It requires the art of compromise and the careful use of language, including flexible or “ambiguous” language that can be interpreted in a way acceptable to different parties.

How is resolution text passed without any formal voting?
While votes are still held to set the parliamentary procedures of each meeting, there is no formal final vote. A resolution is passed in the absence of remaining vetoes (stated objections). Because every party has had a chance to stop or influence the outcome, the final decision carries the weight of having broad international support—even if it means that the language of the resolution is sometimes more general or less ambitious than initially hoped.