COP27 — What’s at Stake for the Climate and the Planet

COP27, the UN’s annual meeting on climate change, starts November 6. Find out what’s on the agenda and why success at this gathering is essential to humanity’s future.

As the leaves change colour outside my office window, I’m reminded that the year is starting to wind down. Every year has milestones the mark the seasons and the cyclical passage of time.

The world has started a more contemporary tradition every fall. It all started in Rio back in 1992.

The United Nations organized what it called the Earth Summit that year. The parties worked out a deal called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

COP27 Begins November 6th in Sharm-el-Sheik Egypt

The 197 countries who signed the UNFCCC now meet once a year for an event they call the Conference of the Parties. November 6 will mark the 27th Conference of the Parties, which insiders call COP27, in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Some of these conferences have gone better than others. For example, the parties signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Agreement in 2015.