What is COP?
COP, or the Conference of the Parties, is the main decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
This conference takes place annually and is a critical opportunity to assess the world’s progress on the climate crisis, find solutions and hold states accountable for their commitments to climate action.
It brings together delegates from the nearly 200 member countries of the UNFCCC, as well as scientists, activists, journalists, and civil society organisations like Amnesty International.
The first COP was held in 1995 and was hosted in Germany. This year’s COP31 will be hosted in Türkiye, with Australia taking on the role of President of COP Negotiations with a pre-COP meeting in the Pacific.
For years, the Pacific has borne the full brunt of the climate crisis. That’s why COP31 marks a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Pacific Nations and Australia to lead the global shift to net zero, to phase out fossil fuel production, extraction, and exports, and help ensure that those most affected by climate change can shape the global response to the climate crisis.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The UNFCCC is an agreement between 198 Parties (197 States and the EU). The agreement is to “stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human-induced) interference with the climate system.”
The UNFCCC is an ‘umbrella’ agreement, which means other binding decisions are made and implemented underneath it. This includes the Paris Agreement, which was agreed at COP21 in 2015.
The Paris Agreement is the first legally-binding global treaty on climate change, in which almost all countries in the world have committed to:
- Keeping the rise in global average temperature to ‘well below’ 2°C, and ideally below 1.5°C, above pre-industrial levels, to stave off the worst effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (known as mitigation)
- Putting in place measures to prevent harm to people and the environment (known as adaptation), and
- Help people and communities recover from harm already suffered (known as loss and damage).
Reference: UNFCCC – Conference of the Parties (COP)
Human rights harms from climate change
For the first time, in 2024, the world breached the threshold of 1.5°C of global heating. Day after day, we see the human rights harms resulting from climate change – set to worsen if global heating is not kept in check.
- More people will lose their homes and livelihoods due to flooding, bushfires and droughts.
- More people will suffer and die from extreme heatwaves.
- More people in Zenadth Kes (the Torres Strait) will be forced to leave their homelands due to rising sea levels.
The science is clear: We urgently need to equitably phase out fossil fuels to have a chance of keeping to the 1.5°C target to protect people’s human rights.
Amnesty International is calling for parties to the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement to put human rights at the heart of all negotiations and decisions. This includes:
- Committing to a full, fast, fair and funded phase-out of fossil fuels, as part of a just transition to renewable energy, to protect people from the human rights harms caused by warming above 1.5 degrees,
- Scaling up finance for adaptation, loss and damage to support people in lower-income countries to reduce emissions, adapt to climate change, and transition away from fossil fuels.
Last year, the Albanese Government announced Australia’s emissions target: a reduction range of 62-70% by 2035 (from 2005 levels).
This target is not enough to protect people and their human rights from worsening climate change.
Indigenous Peoples, low-income communities and other marginalised groups will be the most affected by worsening climate change, despite contributing the least to the problem.
Nikita White, Strategic Campaigner at Amnesty International Australia, said:
“Climate change will worsen poverty and inequality in Australia. It will deepen cycles of disadvantage, as marginalised communities will be the first and worst impacted by climate change. We must see ambitious climate action to protect everyone’s human rights.”
“We must see ambitious climate action to protect everyone’s human rights.”
Nikita White, Strategic Campaigner at Amnesty International Australia
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people who take injustice personally. We are campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all – and we can only do it with your support.
Act now or learn more about our human rights work.
