What is the Conference of the Parties ?

[edit] What is the Conference of the Parties or COP?

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is an event organised by the United Nations (UN), an international organisation founded 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).

[edit] Who are the parties at a COP?

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), Cook Islands and Niue are non-member States in free association with New Zealand. and three have not signed, 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.

[edit] Where do COPs come from?

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] Is there more than one type of COP?

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.

[edit] What do COPs have to do with buildings?

The COPs are at high 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.

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 dry lands, resulting from many factors, including human activities and climatic variations. The range and intensity of desertification have increased in some dry land areas over the past several decades" (IPPC special report on Desertification).

[edit] When was the first and last COP?

The first Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (referred to as CCCOP and COP) was held in Berlin in 1994.´The first Conference of the Parties Convention on Biological Diversity (referred to as CBD, BIOCOP, EXCOP and COP) was also held in 1994 in Nassau, the Bahamas. The first Conference of the parties of the UNCCD was held in Rome in 1997.

The most recent Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (referred to as CCCOP and COP) was COP28 held in Dubai of the UAE in December 2023. The next, COP29 will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan on 11 November, 2024. The most recent Conference of the Parties Convention on Biological Diversity (referred to as CBD, BIOCOP, EXCOP and COP) COP 15 was resumed as the second part of the fifteenth meeting and was held in Nairobi, Kenya, in October, 2023. The most recent session of the Conference of Parties Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was COP 15 held in May 2022.

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