Connecting to COP28

In November of this year the international community will meet to negotiate the next stages of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) treaty.  As we approach this conference here are some important things to keep in mind about it:

• This event is the 28th such meeting in which major decisions related to the UNFCCC are made.  

• The title of the event, COP28, is short for the 28th Conference of the Parties to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

• COP28 will take place in Dubai, UAE and is predicted to include over 70,000 attendees from all over the globe including world leaders, NGOs, private sector representatives, Indigenous Peoples and young people.  

  • • There will be negotiators from nearly 200 countries, over 140 heads of state, support staff from both Dubai and the UN, and observers from nearly 3,300 civic and intergovernmental groups.

• COP28 will see the first Global Stocktake, a comprehensive evaluation of progress against the goals and ambitions first established in the Paris Agreement at COP21.

COP28 takes place during a time of record greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and increasing frequency of extreme weather events.

• COP28 happens in the wake of several major reports from the international scientific community making the case that we are quickly running out of time to do a critical overhaul of our global economy in order to stem the tide of these intense environmental impacts.

• COP28 takes place during a time when renewable energy resources are becoming competitive with conventional energy resources (fossil fuels) and several major countries have adopted significant national climate policies.

Opinions on the value and success of these annual conferences has been much debated.

• The global community has been meeting to deal with these problems for almost three decades, often with limited and inadequate success, it is tempting to conclude that the process is broken.  

• Furthermore, given the scale of the problem and the UN process, it is equally tempting to feel that the process is inaccessible to all but the world's political and economic elite.  

• With this in mind, here are some key reasons why, despite its limitations, the UN process remains critical to the survival of global society, and why even more citizen involvement is crucial to its success.

  • • Reason 1: Climate disruption is a global problem needing a global response, and right now the UN is the major table available for forging that response.

    • Reason 2: The UNFCCC and work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provide much of the legal and scientific framework for national, local, and institutional climate policy and climate action plans, in effect linking the global to local.

Observers have come to play an increasing role in many of the COPs.   

• Observers make up the largest and most diverse group of attendees at the COPs.  In addition to observing negotiations, observers advocate for their country, city, civic group, tribe, business, union, faith group, school, or other group of which they are a member.  

• Observers also come to network with other observer groups, sharing their issues and successes. In doing so they contribute not only to the negotiations but also to their home base as they bring back what they learn to other members of their community.

COP is short for Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the latter half of this title is abbreviated UNFCCC).  These mostly annual conferences are the arena in which critical international agreements like the 2015 Paris Accords are negotiated.  

This year's conference (COP28) is slated to be held in late November in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

Additional Information

• Conference of the Parties (Learn about former COPs)

• What is COP? (Resource general and specific to COP28)

Main groups in attendance

Government negotiators, registered observers representing a wide variety of groups from civil society, and support staff and volunteers attend the COPs.  Attendance at these conferences ranges from 10,000 to 70,000 people, with venues rotating between major cities in various continents.

Who SHOULD attend

The urgent and global nature of climate change requires that we increase the number of people involved with these events, lest the UNFCCC process fails because of a lack of grassroots support and involvement.  However, in practice, physically including more people at a COP is extremely difficult.   

Barriers to attending a COP

1. First, going to a COP is an expensive and time consuming process.  

2. Second, in their current form, COPs are extremely expensive and logistically complex. 

3. Finally, more people traveling to far flung parts of the world comes with its own set of environmental challenges.

Virtual attendance

One of the outgrowths of the past three years is that virtual meetings and remote communication have become commonplace for a great many of us. 

Furthermore, many groups have also become proficient with organizing and conducting online conferences, in some instances greatly expanding attendance at annual meetings. 

This gives those of us lacking the resources to be an in person observer or a volunteer at a COP with avenues for experiencing some of the richness of these events and adding our own voices to the international arena.

• BLUE ZONE - Country negotiators, world leaders, media, and observers are invited to attend the Blue Zone, a UNFCCC-managed site that will host formal negotiations, panel discussions and speaking events across the two weeks of the conference.

  • • Find Out More

• GREEN ZONE - The COP28 Green Zone welcomes non-accredited delegates, including youth groups, civil society, academia, artists, and business to have their voices heard through exhibitions, workshops, and talks that promote inclusive dialogues and awareness about climate action.

  • • Find Out More

• Runaway climate change is a critical problem no one country can solve, leaving no one isolated from its effects.   Addressing it is an international project requiring both multi-national cooperation and grassroots effort.  

• UNFCCC decisions and IPCC reports often provide the framework for local, regional, and national climate policy and legal decisions.

• The UNFCCC process, despite its imperfections, is one of the few common tables where all levels of global society have a chance to do the necessary work to provide a positive environmental legacy to our children and grandchildren.  Even the smallest countries, sometimes the most impacted by climate change, have a voice at these conferences.  

• Additionally, despite a lack of real progress in the face of increasing global urgency, the UNFCCC remains perhaps the only international table still having some public accessibility and accountability.

• Increased public attention and engagement with the UNFCCC process is needed to ensure negotiation outcomes are both equitable and effective.

Additional Information

• COP 101: An Introduction to International Climate Negotiations - A short introduction to the history of the UNFCCC process, what COPs are and why they are important.

• Global Climate Agreements: Successes and Failures - Important agreements, goals and commitments.

• UN Climate Talks (1992 – 2022) - Timeline of important talks, summits, treaties etc. with lots of linked resources further explaining these ideas.

• Wind the clock back to 2015 when the 2015 Paris Accord was drawn up at COP21.  In this accord 197 countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow the increase in the 2100 average annual temperature of the planet to between 1.5 and 2.0°C above the preindustrial mean temperature. The reduction commitments the signatories brought to the table that year were not sufficient to get us to this target, so the agreement designated COP26 in 2020 as the place where nations would submit new commitments, reflecting increased ambition sufficient to reach the 1.5 to 2.0° C target.  

• Because of the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic, COP26 was postponed until 2021.  Though some progress was made on securing increased commitments, these were still not sufficient to reach the 1.5 to 2.0°C target.  One of the tasks of COP27 was to revisit these commitments with the intention of increasing them to keep average global temperature in the year 2100 down to a 1.5°C increase.

• COP27 wasn't terribly successful regarding mitigation and were not able to reach an agreement regarding phasing out fossil fuels or setting emission-reduction commitments.  However, COP27 did establish the Fund for Loss & Damage as well increasing the number of countries committed to the Global Methane Pledge.     

Additional Information

• • • Adaptation's turning point: can we set global targets in time for COP28? - Description of the COP process so far and discussion of what’s at stake.

• COP28 will include a review of the first global stocktake mandated by the 2015 Paris treaty.

• We are continuing to see increasingly severe climate impacts as global emissions continue to rise (IPCC AR6).

• Record renewable energy growth is creating an opportunity to reverse both trends (AR6 & IEA World Energy Outlook 2022)

• This COP comes with conflicts of interest of its leadership and decreased access for many observer groups.

Additional Information 

• • • COP28: Your Guide to the 2023 UN Climate Conference

    • COP28: A visual guide - What you need to know about this year's UN climate summit in Dubai. (Extensive infographics on the issues)

    • Thematic Program - First set of events planned for COP28 and background information.

    • 100 DAYS TO COP28 - Summative press release of events leading up to and during COP28

    • CLIMATE ISSUES TO WATCH IN 2023 - Climate and environment experts take stock of the progress that’s been made and look ahead to the work that remains to be done

    • What is COP28 and why is it important? - Explaining the key issues at the COP28 summit in Dubai. 6 minute read