COP31, the United Nations Climate Conference, is the largest international summit to negotiate and advance global cooperation on climate change — a crisis to which no country, society and economy is immune.
Organized by the United Nations, and this year hosted in Antalya, Türkiye, COP31 brings together representatives of government, business, civil society and more from around the world. These international climate meetings have happened annually since 1995 and have given us major international breakthroughs like the 2015 Paris Agreement – which set the world on course to slowing and, one day, stopping climate change, which is already driving up temperatures, strengthening storms, prolonging droughts, and raising sea levels.
COPs have grown exponentially in size over the past two decades — from small working sessions into the largest annual conferences currently held under the United Nations. Officially, COP31 stands for the 31st meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a landmark international treaty agreed in Rio in 1992, and the parent treaty to the Paris Agreement.