On the 11th Nov COP29 begins in Baku, Azerbaijan. A COP of contrasts, on the one hand a petrostate with reports of O&G lobbying scandals the hosts for the second year in a row, and the COP is overshadowed by election of Trump in America pre-empting the USA’s retreat from Paris in 2025. On the other hand this year temperatures breached 1.5C, and climate financing needs to be agreed.

With the Biodiversity COP (COP16) in Cali Colombia underway, we wanted to share portions of a previous blog covering the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada in 2022, as a reminder on what has already been agreed by the 196 parties to the convention.

William Wilson recounts a recent vist to see the play Kyoto at the Swan Theatre. The play dramatises the negotiations over COP3 that resulted in the famous Kyoto Protocol - a driving force behind climate negotiations ever since.

The UK has announced it will leave the controversial Energy Charter Treaty. We explain what it is and why it matters.

As COP28 wrapped up in Dubai, and 2024 begins, we take a look at the year ahead. What will 2024 bring, and what should we focus on to help fight climate change?

COP28 began in Dubai with a big announcement, that a long awaiting fund for loss and damage has been started. Other key moments included King Charles’ speech, and agreements on food and renewable energy. Thornier issues await in week 2 however.

COP28 will feature the first Global Stocktake, which is intended to be a five yearly review and assessment of the global response to climate change. Find out what this entails and why it matters in this summary.

The Borrowed Earth Project spoke to young climate activist Riaz Ahmed about his climate work in northern Pakistan, and what he would most like to see come out of the climate discussions at COP28. Find the full interview here.

On 8 November 2023, the Stockholm Environment Institute, E3G, International Institute for Sustainable Development and UNEP published “The Production Gap: Phasing down or phasing up? Top fossil fuel producers plan ever more extraction despite climate promises.”

Read about this important intervention here.

After nearly two decades of work and a final burst of 36 hours of round the clock negotiations, on 3 March 2023 in New York, Nations agreed to the “Draft Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction”.

The hosts of COP28, the UAE, have appointed Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber as COP President. The man who will take on this crucial role is currently the CEO of the state oil company as well as chairman of its renewables division. His appointment has caused concern over corporate influence at the COPs, but could the public scrutiny on the UAE and the President benefit us in the long run?

Loss & Damage is one of the most contentious topics being discussed at COP27. Here we provide some thoughts on the negotiations, further reading on the topic, and the relevant text from the Paris Agreement to support anyone negotiating in Egypt.

Yesterday, on the 16th of August, President Biden signed into law the biggest piece of climate legislation that the US has ever managed to pass. The Inflation Reduction Act was the result of years of negotiations within the Democratic party. The bill provides significant investments in climate, energy and healthcare, which are projected to help reduce the US’s CO2 emissions to 40% below their peak by 2030. So how did the bill finally pass, what is actually in it, and what effect will it have?

On 28 July 2022, by 161 votes to 0, with 8 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution (UNGA 76/300) recognising the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment as a human right.

In this blog, Shreya KC, a young climate activist from Nepal, gives us a fascinating update on recent climate negotiations being held in Bonn, Germany in preparation for COP27 in Egypt later this year. Shreya was a campaign coordinator for our friends at MOCK COP and the national youth delegate from Nepal to COP26, she also delivered the opening plenary statement on behalf of YOUNGO at Bonn so is incredibly well-placed to update us on the progress in the most recent climate talks.

In Nov 2021 we sat down with Kirils Holstovs, bridge engineer and one of the lead authors of the COP26 Joint Statement of International Youth Organisations, to discuss the statement and his experiences at COP26

Our list of the key dates in the climate calendar for 2022

As the dust settles on COP26 and the ink dries on the Glasgow Climate Pact, we have compiled the views of activists, climate scientists, negotiators and the COP president on what was achieved.

COP26andBeyond will be hosting several events during COY16 & COP26:

“Beyond COP26” Workshop @ Virtual Conference of Youth. 30th Oct.

“Net Zero Scotland Community - Future Series” - Glasgow. 4th Nov

“Beyond COP26”. with After the Pandemic. Uni of Strathclyde - Glasgow. 4th Nov

For our third article in a series on Climate & Biodiversity, we are privileged to have this expert contribution from Dr Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife & Countryside Link on the critical importance of the forthcoming Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Kunming, China in October 2021, and its links to the climate negotiations.