A COP climate summit is the yearly meeting of countries that are part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). COP stands for Conference of the Parties. These meetings decide how the world responds to climate change.
The UNFCCC
The UNFCCC was adopted in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and came into force in 1994. Almost every country in the world is a party to it. The first COP was held in Berlin in 1995.
Major milestones
- Kyoto Protocol (1997): set binding emission cuts for developed countries.
- Paris Agreement (2015, COP21): all countries agreed to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees.
- Under the Paris Agreement, each country sets its own climate targets, called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and updates them every five years.
What happens at a COP
Delegations of governments negotiate texts on issues such as emission cuts, adaptation, climate finance, carbon markets and loss and damage. Decisions are taken by consensus, which is why talks often go beyond the scheduled closing day. There are also side events, pavilions and meetings of business groups, scientists and civil society.
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Key issues in recent talks
- Climate finance: developing countries want much larger and more predictable funding from developed countries. At COP29 in Baku in 2024, countries agreed on a new finance goal of at least 300 billion US dollars a year by 2035, which many developing countries, including India, criticised as inadequate.
- Loss and damage: a fund to support vulnerable countries hit by climate disasters was operationalised at COP28 in Dubai in 2023.
- Transition away from fossil fuels: COP28 called for transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems.
COP30 was held in Belem, Brazil in 2025. Details of the next summit, including host city and dates, are published on the UNFCCC website.
India’s position
India stresses the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC). It argues that developed countries, which caused most historical emissions, must cut faster and provide finance and technology. India announced at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 a target of net zero emissions by 2070. Its updated NDC of 2022 aims to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2030 and to have about 50 percent of installed power capacity from non fossil sources by 2030. India also promotes Mission LiFE, a call for sustainable lifestyles.
Bottom line
A COP climate summit is where the world negotiates its climate future. For India, the key asks are fair finance, technology support and room for development while expanding clean energy.
Source / स्रोत: UNFCCC, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Press Information Bureau
