Conference of parties all events

[edit] About the Conference of the Parties or COP events?

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is an event organised by the United Nations (UN), an international organisationfounded in 1945. Attendees of COP events includes representatives of all countries that are signatories (or 'Parties') to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

There are 198 parties that have now ratified that convention, two countries that are non-member observer states (the Holy See and the State of Palestine), and three thast have not including Iran, Libya and Yemen. There are COP events that can be found on other topics, though their relationship to the UN is often unclear and should be checked, but the term COP is generally affiliated with the UN.

The UNFCCC and the reference to UN COPs stemmed from the Rio Summit which was the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the 'Earth Summit' held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Issues discussed at the Earth Summit were:

• Patterns of development that create pressure on the environment.
• Protection of the atmosphere (energy use, climate change, ozone depletion, transboundary air pollution).
• Protection of land resources (deforestation, desertification, land degradation, and drought).

[edit] Climate change, biological diversity and desertification COPs

The issues discussed at the Rio Summit and creation of the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFC) in turn created three intrinsically linked strands or conventions which have and continue to hold COPs:

• The UN convention on climate change (UNFCC), most commonly referred to as COP or UNCCCOP.
• The UN Convention on biological diversity (UNCBD or CBD), also sometimes referred to as COP, BIOCOP or EXCOP.
• The UN Convention to combat desertification (UNCCD) also sometimes referred to as COP.

A Joint Liaison Group was set up to boost cooperation between the three conventions, with the ultimate aim of developing synergies in their activities on issues of mutual concern, namely preventing dangerous human interference with climate systems. While figures in all areas vary over time and source, the message for the built environment is relatively similar:

The World Economic Forum in 2020, as well as others, estimated that the built environment sector was responsible for nearly 30% of biodiversity loss globally. (The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and What it Means for Business. January 2023)

The World Green Building Council and others suggest buildings are responsible for around 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions, with around one-quarter relating to materials and the rest to energy-related emissions. (Bringing embodied carbon upfront WGBC 2019)

Desertification is a direct result of climatic variations caused by carbon emissions and human activities that reduce natural infrastructure. This can be as a result of supporting the built environment through direct development, agricultural activities, or material harvesting for fuel, construction, or food. The IPCC report with high confidence "Desertification is land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas, collectively known as drylands, resulting from many factors, including human activities and climatic variations. The range and intensity of desertification have increased in some dryland areas over the past several decades" (IPPC special report on Desertification).

The COPs are negotiations at the highest international governance level; however, agreements made during these events should necessarily feed into the individual country governmental policy, in turn impacting regional, and local level policy, as well as feeding into the community and industry. The design, construction, use, and decommissioning of buildings connects to all three themes directly as well as indirectly, from the materials used to extract, manufacture, supply, and construct the built environment, to where buildings are built, where they sit within development policies, how much and on what energy they run, and how they shape the behaviour of people using them.

[edit] All previous UN COP conventions on climate change.

[edit] All previous UN COP conventions on biological diversity.

[edit] All previous UN COP conventions on desertification.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Achieving zero carbon.
• Carbon emissions.
• Carbon plan.
• Climate change science.
• Climate Change Levy.
• Climate Change Committee progress reports.
• Conference of parties all events
• COP28 and the Path Ahead for Industry.
• COP21 Paris 2015.
• COPs and the last day of no 28.
• CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.
• Energy Act.
• Emission rates.
• Energy related products regulations.
• Energy targets.
• Government net zero review 2022.
• Greenhouse gases.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC.
• Kyoto protocol.
• LETI calls for responses to BEIS net zero review.
• Net zero carbon 2050.
• Net Zero Review underlines role for engineering services.
• Net zero strategy: build back greener.
• Sustainability.
• The Edge policy proposals for the built and natural environment 2022.
• The Low Carbon Transition Plan: National strategy for climate and energy.
• The sustainability of construction works.
• UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.

[edit] External references

https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/what-is-the-united-nations-framework-convention-on-climate-change