Explainer Series: A Précis of the Main Climate Summits
Hitherto, twenty-five Conferences of Parties (“COP”) have taken place, with the
twenty-sixth expected to be held from the 31 st of October to the 12 th of November,
2021 at Glasgow, Scotland. Commonly known as COPs, these climate summits are
held every year unless decided otherwise. Most of these summits have recorded
great insight and contributed in facilitating well-known agreements and protocols.
This article is a précis to the main climate summits. However, before learning about
these summits, it is important to understand how and when they started.
The Genesis
The (“UNCED”), commonly known as the Earth Summit, was held in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil in 1992. Herein, the binding treaty of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (“UNFCCC”) was introduced which required the
party-nations to reduce their emission of carbon dioxide, methane, and other
greenhouse gases which are responsible for global warming. Under this treaty, it
was decided that the Conference of the Parties would be the decision-making body
that lets every nation, that is a part of the convention, to meet and evaluate their
progress. Delegates from participant nations meet at the conference to discuss and
negotiate about the actions to be taken. This treaty was initially signed by 166
countries and came into force on 21 March 1994. It has now been ratified by 197
countries. The first COP was held in Berlin in 1995.
The Main Climate Summits:
Location and Year: Kyoto, Japan; 1997.
● Well-known for the introduction of the Kyoto Protocol.
● The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 but because of a complex ratification
procedure, it could only be enacted on the 16 th of February, 2005.
● The goal of the Kyoto Protocol was to commit industrialized countries to limit and
reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The reduction was to be based on
agreed targets.
● It only bound the developed countries recognizing that they were responsible for the
high levels of GHG emissions.
● However, there were a lot of problems in the implementation of this Protocol: most
countries repeatedly failed to reach their targets; China and the USA were not bound
to the protocol even though they were two of the world’s leading emitters. This led to
the belief that the protocol would fail with no significant improvement.
Location and Year: Bali, Indonesia; 2007.
● Popularly known for the Bali Road Map, which included the Bali Action Plan
(hereinafter referred to as the Plan).
● The Plan laid down the new negotiating process made to attack climate change. This
new process focused on how the developing countries could participate. Here
negotiation refers to COPs for discussing how to mitigate climate change.
● The Plan was made to effectively implement the Convention by long-term
cooperation, up to 2012.
● The Plan was divided into five categories: shared vision, mitigation, adaptation,
financing, and technology.
● It was decided that the process of enabling effective and sustained implementation of
the Convention would be conducted by a subsidiary body, Ad Hoc Working Group on
Long-term Cooperative Action (“AWG-LCA”).
● The Plan had laid down timelines but they turned out to be exceedingly optimistic by
expecting to adopt a binding agreement in two years. Due to this optimism, the year
of entering into a binding agreement kept being pushed.
Location and Year: Copenhagen, Denmark; 2009.
● Well-known for the Copenhagen Accord, - a political accord (not legally binding).
● The Copenhagen Accord concerned itself with the long-term goal of limiting the
maximum global average temperature increase to not more than 2 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial levels.
● The developed countries promised to fund developing countries with US$30 billion
for 2010-2012. They also agreed to providing a long-term finance of US$100 billion-
a-year in public and private finance to developing countries by 2020.
● There was an agreement on measuring and reporting the actions of developing
countries. This was to be done in accordance with their domestic measurement,
reporting and verification (“MRV”), the results were to be reported biennially to the
UNFCCC.
● The Accord provided explicit emission limits by major economies, including the
major developing countries.
● The Accord called for four new implementations: a mechanism to reduce
deforestation, a new Technological Mechanism to facilitate technological
advancements, a High-Level Panel to study the implementation of financial
provisions, and a Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.
● This COP was considered to be filled with drama and chaos.
Location and Year: Cancun, Mexico; 2010.
● Known for the Cancun Agreements.
● The Cancun Agreements took all the essential elements of the Copenhagen Accord
and incorporated it in the official UN process, like the new Green Climate Fund for
the developing countries.
● Economy-wide emission reduction targets were listed for developed countries and
Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (“NAMAs”) were listed for developing
countries.
● The Green Climate Fund was agreed upon to facilitate the transfer of money from
developed to developing countries to deal with climate change.
● A deforestation scheme (REDD, reducing emissions from deforestation and
degradation), under which rich countries paid the poorer countries to not cut trees in
an attempt to incentivize them, was given backing.
● The idea of Technology transfer raised in COP15 was given backing.
● In a nutshell, Cancun agreements made everything in Copenhagen Accord official by
incorporating it in UN documentation.
Location and Year: Durban, South Africa; 2011.
● Popularly known as the Durban platform.
● It is known to be a turning point in climate change negotiation, since it was here that
the governments recognized the requirement to compose blueprints for a new legal
instrument of negotiation that went beyond 2020 and included all parties.
● An Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform was established with the aim of
coming up with an action plan to formulate another legal instrument, no later than
2015.
● The Green Climate Fund was formally established.
● As the first set of commitments of the Kyoto Protocol ended in 2012, a political
commitment was given by Europe and a few other developed countries to formalize a
second commitment period at COP 18.
● A Standing Committee to evaluate the flow of climate finance was established.
● Adopted procedures to implement measurement, reporting, and verification of
countries which were decided in Cancun agreements. In this, a new biennial report
was to be given by countries on their climate efforts, along with International
Assessment and Review (“IAR”) for developed countries and International
Consultation and Analysis (“ICA”) for developing countries.
Location and Year: Doha, Qatar; 2012.
● Famous for the Doha Amendment.
● A new 8-year second commitment period (2013-2020) was launched under the Kyoto
Protocol.
● A timetable for a new climate change agreement by 2015, and an increase in
ambition before 2020 was decided.
● A goal of reducing GHG emissions by 18% compared to 1990 levels was set.
● The amendment would enter into force with 144 parties but till May 2020 there were
only 137 instruments of acceptance.
● Nigeria became the 144 th party to enter on 2 October 2020. The trust in climate
negotiation process was undermined due to this delay.
Location and Year: Warsaw, Poland; 2013.
● Known for the International Warsaw Mechanism.
● It is a mechanism that recognizes and addresses the loss and damage which is caused
due to climate change.
● The goal is to provide assistance and guidance to countries with respect to efficient
strategies to address and reduce the loss.
● It was decided that every country will offer Intended Nationally Determined
Contributions (“INDCs”) by March 2015. To date, 194 countries have submitted
their first NDC.
Location and Year: Lima, Peru; 2014.
● Well-known for its contribution towards a global agreement, one which includes all
countries.
● It was during this COP that the UNFCCC laid down the plans for the international
agreement which was to take place in Paris the following year, 2015.
● They agreed upon a draft to use for the Paris summit; regarding the information the
countries will be required to share in planning the national climate action plans.
● The funds in Green Climate Fund crossed the US$10 billion mark.
● First-ever multilateral assessment of mitigation effort was featured by developed
countries. These nations gave brief presentations on showing their progress towards
achieving their 2020 emission pledges to the Subsidiary Body on Implementation
(“SBI”).
Location and Year: Paris, France; 2015.
● This summit is known for the famed Paris Agreement.
● The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty which was adopted by
196 parties on 12 December 2015, and entered into force on 04 November 2016.
● The goal was the same as limiting global warming to below 2 and preferably 1.5
degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, as discussed in COP 15.
● The Paris Agreement is a landmark treaty since it, for the first time, binds all nations
to a singular agreement.
● It follows a 5-year cycle wherein the nations were expected to submit their Nationally
Determined Contributions (“NDCs”) by 2020, and subsequently increase their
ambition based on the cycle.
● For better implementation, the agreement also invited countries to construct and
submit Long-Term Low Greenhouse Gas Emission Development Strategies (“LT-
LEDS”) by 2020.
● The agreement maintains that developed countries should lead and provide financial
assistance, while also allowing other parties to make voluntary contributions.
● The progress is supposed to be monitored using the Enhanced Transparency
Framework (“ETF”) starting from 2024, under which countries need to report
transparently. All the data collected will be entered into the Global Stocktake, which
is a five-yearly review on performance in comparison to the NDC.
Location and Year: Marrakesh, Morocco; 2016.
● Known for the Marrakech Partnership.
● The Partnership supports the implementation of the Paris Agreement by empowering
collaboration between governments, businesses, and investors.
● It had four goals for 2019-2020: strengthen the interaction between Parties and other
stakeholders, broaden participation, ensure continuity and coherence, and track
progress.
● A five-year workplan was approved by nations on loss and damage to start in 2017.
● New Global Environment Facility (“GEF”) fund was opened in efforts of encouraging
transparency. $50 million was donated by countries including Sweden, Canada and
Germany.
● Paris Agreement came into effect right before this COP.
Location and Year: Katowice, Poland; 2018.
● Known for the Katowice Rulebook.
● This is the rulebook for the Paris Agreement which gives details on communication,
tracking, providing information on the impact of climate change, and transparency.
● A new discussion on financial target was decided to be launch at COP 26 for 2025.
● Certain institutions such as the Standing Committee on Finance and Technology
Executive Committee were included in an action plan to help countries in mobilizing
resources for adaptation.
● It was decided that the global review of the Paris Agreement would be 5-yearly.
Conclusion
Since the conception of UNFCCC, there have been twenty-five COPs and it is
because of these summits that some of the most eminent agreements were made
and put into effect. The journey through all COPs has led to the Paris Agreement -
an agreement shouldering lots of hopes and expectations. Here, it becomes
important to note that in the way USA withdrew officially on 04 November 2020, any
country can leave at its will without any repercussion. Nations can leave and re-join
at pleasure like USA did in 2021. Currently, paramount onus of preventing global
warming lays on the Paris Agreement which is not as strict as one would hope. This
makes one wonder if the work is done after entering into an agreement even though
nothing can be said for certain. This brings us to COP26 and its importance. After
the 2021 IPCC report, it has become important to revisit the previously recorded
NDCs as they are calculated to maintain global warming below 2 degrees celcius
and not 1.5 degrees celcius; the difference is of great importance. Hence, the
nations are expected to come up with new NDCs to make this possible. All the
nations are now expected to take some unprecedented action to limit global
warming.
img - BBC.com
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