First of all, what is COP?
COP stands for "Conference Of the Parties". These are meetings where the countries within a UN convention meet to be able to make decisions. This year's climate meeting is number 31 since the Climate Convention was formed in 1992. That is why it is called COP31.
Climate meetings are held in different locations each year. At the meeting, the world's countries gather to negotiate how emissions should be reduced and how the climate crisis should be handled.
COP31 is held in Antalya, Turkey, from 9–20 November. Sweden's climate minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) will lead the Swedish negotiating delegation on site during the second week of the meeting.
The first climate meeting - COP1 - was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995. At the COP3 meeting in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, the first global climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, was negotiated.
What is the Paris Agreement?
The Paris Agreement is a global climate agreement that was signed at COP21 in Paris in 2015, from which the climate negotiations are now based. In the agreement, almost all the world's countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees, and most preferably below 1.5 degrees, compared to pre-industrial times.
This must primarily be done through reduced emissions of greenhouse gases, but also by taking care of nature so that it can continue to regulate the climate.
The parties to the agreement must gradually tighten their commitments and renew or update them every five years, which is done in national climate plans (NDCs).
Part of the Paris Agreement is about increasing the ability to adapt to negative effects and deal with damages and losses that occur as a result of climate change.
A basic idea in the agreement is that the countries with the best conditions should go first and that industrialized countries should provide support to developing countries. This must be done through climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building.
Three countries have signed the Paris Agreement but not ratified it: Libya, Iran and Yemen. The US left the Paris Agreement in January this year following a decision by Donald Trump.
Why is there talk of exactly 1.5 degrees of warming?
The goal is set to mitigate the most devastating effects of climate change, which are getting worse for every tenth of a degree the earth warms.
At 1.5 degrees of warming, more intense storms and heat waves and an increased risk of mass death among corals await, among other things. At 2 degrees, a greater proportion of the population is exposed to deadly extreme weather, and the likelihood of irreversible tipping points in the climate increases, such as the Amazon turning into savanna or major current systems in the air and oceans being permanently altered with global consequences.
The 1.5 degree target is now described by the UN as impossible to meet. Current policy for the planet against around 2.8 degrees of warming, according to the UN environmental program UNEP.
What is meant by fossil fuels?
Coal, oil, petrol, diesel and fossil gas are examples of fossil fuels and the most important reason why, above all, the content of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, which contributes to climate change.
Fossil fuels are the remains of small aquatic animals and plants that have died and remained at the bottom of oceans and lakes for millions of years. By being exposed to increasing pressure and temperature, they have been slowly converted into coal, oil and gas.
New formation of fossil fuels still occurs, however very slowly compared to the rate at which modern industrial society consumes the long-term stored fossil fuels.
All combustion produces carbon dioxide, which contributes to the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide emissions differ between different fuels. Burning coal gives rise to higher emissions of carbon dioxide per unit of energy than burning oil and oil products such as petrol and diesel.
What are net zero emissions and negative emissions?
Net zero emissions means striving to reduce emissions as much as possible and then compensating for what is still emitted with so-called negative emissions. The term is synonymous with climate neutral.
Negative emissions are about technologies that can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or nature-based measures, such as tree planting, which lead to increased absorption of carbon dioxide. This is also called negative emissions.
What is climate adaptation all about?
Adaptation - or adaptation in Swedish - is about how the world's countries can adapt to the effects of climate change. This may involve developing systems that can warn of floods early, building barriers to tackle rising sea levels, adapting crops to drier climates or rebuilding infrastructure and communities to cope with worse downpours. In most countries, including Sweden, intensive work is now taking place to adapt society to the changed climate.
What does climate finance mean?
It refers to rich countries' support to poorer countries to help them limit their emissions and deal with climate change, something that is part of the Paris Agreement.
At the climate conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the countries agreed that the support should include at least 300 billion dollars per year from 2035 onwards.
The sum is debated and many consider it too low. The UN environmental program UNEP estimates that adaptation alone will cost poor countries over 300 billion dollars. Some calculations show that the total need, if one counts support for, among other things, energy conversion and compensation for so-called damages and losses, reaches 1,300 billion a year.
What is the IPCC?
The IPCC is the UN's climate panel (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) which compiles the scientific situation on climate change. They produce reports that are jointly authored by hundreds of researchers from around the world through a rigorous process. The researchers who work on compiling the report are not paid, the work takes place entirely within their regular job.
The IPCC's reports are used as an important basis in the climate negotiations. The last major IPCC report was published in 2023 and stated, among other things, that "human activities, mainly through greenhouse gas emissions, have unequivocally caused global warming". The next major report is expected in 2028.
What is UNFCCC?
The UNFCCC is the UN's climate convention - the international framework behind the climate summits. The abbreviation stands for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The purpose of the convention, which was created in 1992, is to limit greenhouse gas emissions and counteract dangerous climate change.
