Why in News?

• Chile has formally announced its withdrawal from hosting the 25th edition of United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) 25 on climate change.

About:

• The COP is the pre-eminent climate meet, where world leaders decide on actions that must be taken to address global warming. Since it was first held in 1995 it has never once been cancelled.
• The COP 25 was to be held in Santiago, Chile from the 2nd-13th December until Chilean President announced that Chile would not be hosting the talks. The decision followed student protests in Santiago over a hike in rail metro fares and wealth inequality.
• It has to be noted that UN Secretariat at Bonn has previously stepped in when a country is unable to host. For e.g. In 2017, the COP was held in Bonn even though the presidency of the quorum was held by Fiji.

About UNFCCC:

• The UNFCCC, signed in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development also known as the Earth Summit, the Rio Summit or the Rio Conference.
• The UNFCCC entered into force on March 21, 1994, and has been ratified by 197 countries.
• As of March 2019, UNFCCC has 197 parties.
• UNFCCC provides a framework for negotiating specific international treaties (called “protocols”) that aim to set binding limits on greenhouse gases.
• This treaty is considered legally non-binding and the treaty itself sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries.

Objective of UNFCCC:

• The Convention’s ultimate objective is “to achieve, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”.

What is Conference of Parties (COP)?

• COP is the supreme decision-making body of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). ‎
• All States that are Parties to UNFCCC are represented at COP. ‎
• At COP, all parties review implementation of Convention and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of Convention.

Few facts about COP:

• The first COP (COP 1) was held in Berlin. (1995)
• Third COP (COP 3) was held in Kyoto, Japan (1997). It was here the famous Kyoto Protocol came in to existence.
• COP18 (2012)
• The Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol is adopted.
• COP18 also launched a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
• COP 21 (Paris)2015
• Paris Agreement adopted which aims to keep global temperatures well below 2.0C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times and endeavor to limit them even more, to 1.5C.
• COP 24 -2018 Katowice (Poland).

COP President and Bureau:

• The office of the COP President normally rotates among the five United Nations regional groups. The President is usually the environment minister of his or her home country. S/he is elected by acclamation immediately after the opening of a COP session. Their role is to facilitate the work of the COP and promote agreements among Parties.
• The work of the COP and each subsidiary body is guided by an elected Bureau. To ensure continuity, it serves not only during sessions, but between sessions as well.