The 22^nd Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) will be held in Marrakech, November 7 to 18, 2016. The COP stands for the "Conference of the Parties.” It is the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), opened for signature in 1992 during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and later entered into force in 1994. Through this instrument, the United Nations has equipped itself with an action framework to fight global warming. On the march towards COP22 After its entry into force in 1994, the UNFCCC Secretariat was established in Geneva.

It was then relocated to Bonn in 1995 following the “First Conference of the Parties” (COP1) in Berlin. Since then, there have been twenty-one COPs, with the most recent one organized in Paris this past December. The next one, COP22 is scheduled to take place in Marrakech, Morocco from November 7 to 18, 2016. The COP was created and put in place in order to structure the efforts of the Parties to the Convention as they address climate change. The COP meets annually to review and assess the implementation of the UNFCCC and any other legal instruments the body adopts with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change.

These annual UN climate change conferences are commonly referred to as COP. Preserving the environment for the benefit of present and future generations The main objective of the Framework Convention and its related legal instruments are to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent "dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." The term "anthropogenic" refers to the effects caused by human activity. The Convention stipulates,"Parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities." According to the UNFCCC, certain countries are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. For example, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), low-lying coastal areas, arid or semi-arid zones and developing countries with fragile mountainous ecosystems.These areas are subject to extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and desertification, etc.

Parties to the Convention have common but differentiated responsibilities.

During the COP, member States, who have common but differentiated responsibilities, strive to reach agreements on reducing greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity, assess the evolution of their commitments and review the implementation of the Framework Convention and other legal instruments that the COP adopts. Typically a series of negotiating sessions are carried out beforehand in order to optimize the agenda and discussions. As of today there are 197 Parties to the Convention (196 States and the European Union) including Palestine who joined in March 2016.

Link: http://www.cop22.ma/en