Connecting to COP27

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 (COP27) is slated to be held in early November in Sharm El-Shiek, Egypt.

Additional Information

• Conference of the Parties - Page from the UN Climate Change website.

• Everything you wanted to know about the COP but were afraid to ask - Page from the UN Climate Change website. Written for COP26 (last year's conference).

Why the international process is important

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. 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.

Why COP 27 is important

To answer this question, 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. So one of the tasks of this upcoming conference is 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.

Additional Information

• COP27 and the Important Year Ahead - An article from the International Institute for Environment and Development

• Egypt is Hosting COP27. Can It Become Africa's Climate Champion? - An article from the Council for Foreign Affairs website

• Five Things COP27 Must Achieve for Vulnerable Countries - A article from the World Resources Institute Website

• More Ambitious Climate Plans Needed Ahead of COP27 - Transcript of a speech by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa

• Time to Shift from Pledges to Action - An article from the World Wildlife Federation's website

• What is COP? - An article from the Chatham House Website

The three main groups attending a COP are government negotiators, registered observers representing a wide variety of groups from civil society, and support staff and volunteers. Attendance at these conferences ranges from 10,000 to 40,000 people, with venues rotating between major cities in various continents.

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. First, going to a COP is an expensive and time consuming process. Second, in their current form, COPs are extremely expensive and logistically complex endeavors. Finally, more people traveling to far flung parts of the world comes with its own set of environmental challenges.

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.