The Conference of Parties (COP) brings together the representatives from nearly 200 countries that are signatories to the UNFCCC, to discuss and negotiate global climate policies and actions. The main goal of the UNFCCC COP meetings is to assess progress in dealing with climate change and to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The COP21 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. The main objective of the 2015 conference was to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UNFCCC negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate. On 12 December 2015, the participating 196 nations agreed to combat climate change and unleash actions and investment towards a low-carbon, resilient and sustainable future by pursuing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. It outlined an action plan to limit global warming. Its main elements were:
- Long-term goal – Global average temperature increase should not exceed 1.5°C by the end of the century;
- Contributions – Countries commit to climate action by submitting climate action plans to reduce their emissions;
- Ambition – Governments communicate their action plans every five years – each plan setting more ambitious targets;
- Transparency – Countries report to each other and the public on how well they are doing in reaching their targets, in order to ensure transparency and oversight;
- Solidarity – Climate finance is needed to help vulnerable countries to both reduce emissions and build resilience to climate change
The implementation of the Paris Agreement requires economic and social transformation, based on the best available science. The Paris Agreement works on a five-year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action — or, ratcheting up — carried out by countries. Since 2020, countries have been submitting their national climate action plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Each successive NDC is meant to reflect an increasingly higher degree of ambition compared to the previous version.
The Paris Agreement was opened for signature on 22 April 2016 (Earth Day) at a ceremony inside the UN Headquarters in New York. It entered into force on 4 November 2016, when the condition of ratification by at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions had been met.
