COP - Whats it all about?

The international political response to climate change began at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, where the
Rio Convention included the adoption of the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This
convention set out a framework for action aimed at stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse
gases (GHGs) to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The UNFCCC
which entered into force on 21 March 1994, now has a near-universal membership of 195 parties.
The main objective of the annual Conference of Parties (COP) is to review the Conventions
implementation. The first COP took place in Berlin in 1995 and significant meetings since then have
included COP3 where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, COP11 where the Montreal Action Plan was
produced, COP15 in Copenhagen where an agreement to success Kyoto Protocol was unfortunately not
realised and COP17 in Durban where the Green Climate Fund was created.
In 2015 COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, will, for the first time in over 20
years of UN negotiations, aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the
aim of keeping global warming below 2C.
France will play a leading international role in hosting this seminal conference, and COP21 will be one of
the largest international conferences ever held in the country. The conference is expected to attract close
to 50,000 participants including 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental
organisations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society.

Why is the conference called COP21?

The Paris Climate Conference is officially known as the 21st Conference of the Parties (or
COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the
United Nations body which is responsible for climate and based in Bonn, Germany. The
Conference will also serve as the 11th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.
The COP meets each year to take decisions that further the implementation of the
Convention and to combat climate change. COP21 will take place at the same time as
CMP11, the 11th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, which oversees the
implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the decisions made to increase its effectiveness.

COP21 is shorthand for Conference of the Parties 21, which tells you
absolutely nothing. You could call it the 2015 United Nations Climate Change
Conference, but that gives you little more than a vague outline of what it is. In
truth, COP21 is a fairly simple concept and can be explained like so: Countries
from all over the world are going to meet up in Paris at the end of this month
and try to decide the best way to keep the world from getting any hotter.
When you put it that way, it doesnt sound so bad. In fact, the delegates are
only going to try and keep the planet from warming more than two degrees by
the end of this century. The best and brightest policymakers from the United
Nations and all they have to worry about is two lousy degrees in 85 years?
Piece of cake, right?
Sure, if the cake was made of terrifying consequences.
Why Two Degrees Makes All the Difference
What would happen if the world got just two degrees warmer? Doesnt sound
like a lot, does it? Walk outside when its 24 (75) and it wont feel much
different than when its 22 (71.6). But the problem with that analogy is that
its extremely localized. Two degrees really doesnt make much of a difference
when youre standing on your front doorstep. Thats the kind of weather that
happens every day. But what if the warming wasnt localized? What if it was
everywhere?
Think about this: The surface area of your average doorstep is less than one
square meter. The surface area of the Earth is 510 billion times bigger than
that. So what would it take to warm the whole planet 2? A lot more heat
than any Earthling would enjoy.
Heres the really scary part: Humans have never lived on a planet thats two
degrees warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution. According
to NASAs Earth Observatory, the planet is about 0.8 warmer now than it

was in 1880. Some variation in the planets temperature is natural over time,
but two-thirds of that increase has taken place in just the last 40 years. Why is
that?
Well, ever since we started burning fossil fuels like coal and oil, weve added
more carbon into Earths atmosphere than it would naturally receive, such as
from wildfires and the occasional volcanic eruption. And when theres more
carbon in the atmosphere, the atmosphere traps more thermal energy from
the sun. In other words, the more gas we pump into the atmosphere, the
hotter we make the planet. It takes a lot of pumping to warm the planet, but
weve been doing it for a long time.
And heres the thing about the planet: It is a very complicated machine. Warm
a living room by two degrees and its relatively unchanged, warm a 510 billion
square meter sphere teeming with oceans, weather systems and ecosystems
by two degrees and the impact is almost incalculable. There are, however, a
few things we can expect:

a 400-800 percent increase in wildfires across the United States

a global increase in hurricane intensity

a global decrease in marine life due to coral bleaching and ocean acidification

a global increase in both heat waves and coastal flooding events

a rise in sea levels by as much as 10 feet in 50 years

a global decrease in food supply due to changes in precipitation patterns and upticks
in pest infestation and water pollution
and a general destabilization of the planets economic, social and military security

Also, according to a recent study, climate change is terrible for your sex life,
but thats none of my business.
How can two degrees of warming cause so much damage? Because its
doubling down on the laundry list of disasters weve already experienced with
less than one degree of warming. Remember, the global average temperature
has risen 0.8 since records began in 1880. As NASA explains, the amount

of energy required to do that can literally change the face of the Earth. A onedegree global change is significant because it takes a vast amount of heat to
warm all the oceans, atmosphere, and land by that much, the agency writes.
In the past, a one- to two-degree drop was all it took to plunge the Earth into
the Little Ice Age. A five-degree drop was enough to bury a large part of North
America under a towering mass of ice 20,000 years ago.
Thats what happened when the temperature dropped. We have no conception
of how bad things will get if it rises. If we start warming the planet way beyond
what humans have ever experienced, God knows what will wait for us, Carlo
Jaeger, the chair of the Global Climate Forum, told CNN in May.
And that, in a nutshell, is why COP21 matters.

COP21 is the 21st Conference of the Parties an annual UN conference on the subject
of the climate, and climate change. This years COP meeting will be held in Paris from
the 30th November to 11th December.
It will bring together leaders from around the world with the aim of achieving a legally
binding and universal agreement on the climate, with the aim of keeping global
warming below 2C. This will happen through discussion on emissions reductions and
other measures required to avert the looming global catastrophe of climate change.
The first real concerted global effort to formulate a political response to climate change
happened at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The Rio Convention, the result of the
Summit, incorporated the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC). The first Conference of the Parties took place in Berlin in 1995. It
was at the third session of COP in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, that the Kyoto Protocol (an
extension to the UNFCCC) was adopted. Wikipedia has a very helpful list of all of
the COP conferences.

Why is COP21 so important?

The Kyoto Protocol legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. The
Protocols first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012. The second
commitment period (the Doha Amendment) began on 1 January 2013 and will end in
2020.
Japan, New Zealand and Russia all participated in Kyotos first-round but did not take on
new targets in the second commitment period. Other developed countries without
second-round targets are Canada (which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012) and
the United States (which has not ratified the Protocol). This means that currently there
are only 36 states signed up to the second commitment period and 144 are required
for the Doha Amendment to enter into force.
After the disappointing result at the 2009 Copenhagen conference where nothing
concrete was really agreed the politicians put off making a decision and countries
later submitted non-binding emissions reductions pledges or mitigation action pledges
COP21 is seen as something of a last hope, and a vital step to getting global
agreement on emissions reductions.

COP21 and Climate Stewards

The French government is expecting 40,000 attendees at COP21. Unfortunately, you
cant just turn up and be part of the official meeting at the Le Bourget site only
participants formally accredited by the UN will be allowed in. So, does that mean we
can do nothing? As the French would say loin de l!
Climate Stewards and A Rocha will be joining with Tearfund, the Lausanne movement
and others to host various fringe events bringing a Christian perspective to the climate
negotiations. If you are able to come to Paris (without flying :D) then it would be great

to see you there. Currently, these events are still in the planning stages but well be
updating this page as plans are firmed up check back regularly!
A group of Christians from around the UK will be taking part in a walking and
cycling Pilgrimage2Paris. CSs very own Caroline Pomeroy will be cycling all the way to
Paris as part of this group to take part in the massive demonstration that will be held on
the December 12th the intention being to show the worlds leaders that we are
serious about climate change and serious about them doing a proper job of limiting
climate change to a maximum of 2C above the pre-industrial average. This figure is,
according to the IPCC a critical upper limit beyond which the risks of grave damage to
ecosystems, and of non-linear responses, are expected to increase rapidly.
So, if you have the energy, and a bike, you can join Caroline and many others on their
trip to Paris get in touch for further details and updates.
Caroline will be writing a blog so you can follow the run up to the cycle ride (training!!)
and the ride to Paris itself.