27th UN-Conference of Parties (UN-COP): Delivering for people and the planet

27^th UN-Conference of Parties (UN-COP): Delivering for people and the planet

Relevance for UPSC Exam: General Studies I- Climatic Change

27^th UN-Conference of Parties (UN-COP): In news

The port city of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt is hosting the 27th edition of the UN-Conference of Parties (UN-COP).

27^th UN-Conference of Parties (UN-COP): India’s participation

Last year, PM Modi, at the 26th edition of the COP in Glasgow, Scotland, committed to India becoming net-zero, or in effect carbon neutral, by 2070 along with Panchamrita

• Environment Minister is leading the Indian delegation to COP-27 in Egypt.
• India is determined to press developed countries into making good their unfulfilled commitment to deliver $100 billion a year of climate finance by 2020 and every year thereafter till 2025.

Conference of Parties (CoP): Historical background

• The CoP comes under the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC) which was formed in 1994.
• The UNFCCC was established to work towards “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.”
• It laid out a list of responsibilities for the member states which included:

1. Formulating measures to mitigate climate change
2. Cooperating in preparing for adaptation to the impact of climate change
3. Promoting education, training and public awareness related to climate change

• The UNFCCC has 198 parties including India, China and the USA. COP members have been meeting every year since 1995.

• COP1: The first conference was held in 1995 in Berlin.
• COP3: It was held in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, the famous Kyoto Protocol (w.e.f 2005) was adopted. It commits the member states to pursue limitation or reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
• COP8: India hosted the eighth COP in 2002 in New Delhi. It laid out several measures including, ‘strengthening of technology transfer… in all relevant sectors, including energy, transport and R&D,  and the strengthening of institutions for sustainable development.
• COP21: it is one of the most important that took place in 2015, in Paris, France. Here countries agreed to work together to ‘limit global warming to well below 2, preferably at 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.’

27^th UN-Conference of Parties (UN-COP): Significance

• The event will see leaders from more than 190 countries, thousands of negotiators, researchers and citizens coming together to strengthen a global response to the threat of climate change.
• It is a pivotal movement for the world to come together and accelerate the climate action plan after several discussion.

27^th UN-Conference of Parties (UN-COP): Goal

The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP27 – builds on the outcomes of COP26 to deliver action on an array of issues critical to tackling the climate emergency – from urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience, and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, to delivering on the commitments to finance climate action in developing countries.

Faced with a growing energy crisis, record greenhouse gas concentrations, and increasing extreme weather events, COP27 seeks renewed solidarity between countries, to deliver on the landmark Paris Agreement, for people and the planet.

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