What is COP27? Here are 7 things to know about this global climate change summit
Leaders from around the world are gathering in Egypt for the United Nations’ annual meeting about climate change.
COP27 summit begins in Egypt
Leaders from around the world have descended upon Egypt to attend the COP27 climate change summit.
Leaders from around the world are descending on Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, starting Sunday for COP27.
Here are seven things you should know about this meeting of global minds.
What is COP27?
COP27 is a climate change summit that is being held by the United Nations from Nov. 6-18 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. This is the 27th annual such meeting. It is attended by nearly 200 countries and a regional economic integration organization that are members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as the UNFCCC.
Why is it called COP?
The acronym COP stands for "Conference of the Parties." According to the UNFCCC, the COP is the decision-making body that is responsible for "monitoring and reviewing" the implantation of the convention.
What happens at COP?
This summit is meant to foster cooperation between the member nations to address climate change on a global scale. Leaders and their designates will meet to discuss their plans. It also allows them to refine those plans or develop new ones.
Go to unfccc.int for a schedule of events for COP27.
Climate compensation, adaptation on this year's agenda at COP27
Dr. Steve Cohen, Senior Vice Dean for the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University, discusses COP27, which is underway in Egypt.
Who is the US sending to COP27?
President Joe Biden is scheduled to attend COP27 on Nov. 11, but a delegation of U.S. officials is being led to the conference by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.
Among the high-level officials in the U.S. delegation is Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Biden recaps climate change efforts at COP26
President Joe Biden recapped the efforts to address climate change that have been made during his two days at COP26.
Who else is going to COP27?
Since Egypt is hosting COP27, it’s no surprise that high-level officials of the Egyptian government will be in attendance.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak originally said after his recent appointment that he would skip COP27, but reversed course in the days leading up to the conference.
"There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change," Sunak said in a tweet.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid reportedly pulled out of the conference amid an election that saw former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reelected. The country’s president will head to COP27 instead, according to reports.
What are the goals of COP27?
There are four stated goals of this year’s summit: mitigation of climate change, adaptation to face the challenges of a changing climate, financing efforts to address climate change and collaboration between member nations to achieve results in a balanced way.
Read more about each of these goals at cop27/eg.
What has happened at previous COPs?
One of the biggest things to come out of a COP happened in 2015 when the meeting was held in Paris. During COP21, the Paris Agreement was adopted by the 196 member nations. The treaty seeks to limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels.
At COP26, some delegates said they felt the climate deal agreed to during the conference didn’t go far enough to clamp down on the drivers of climate change.
Delegates at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland in 2021.
(OLI SCARFF/AFP / Getty Images)