{"id":2329,"date":"2025-05-07T15:21:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centraldacop.oc.eco.br\/?p=2329"},"modified":"2025-05-07T16:50:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T19:50:23","slug":"cop30-the-rules-of-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centraldacop.oc.eco.br\/en\/cop30-the-rules-of-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"COP30: the rules of the game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s kickoff time<\/a> for another COP. And the competition will be played under more adverse conditions than those encountered by the Brazilian national team in high-altitude games, like those in Quito or La Paz. After all, the climate is on the brink. Remember the floods in southern Brazil, the droughts in the Amazon, the wildfires in California? Well, the game has changed. But who\u2019s talking strategy? Who\u2019s setting the rules in this new playing field?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with the basics: COP is an acronym for Conference of the Parties. What parties are we talking about? The 197 countries \u2014 plus the European Union \u2014 that signed on to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The main goal of the convention is to prevent human interference in the climate system. The COPs are yearly meetings where these countries decide how to go about that \u2014 it is as if football were in crisis and FIFA called a summit with all the national confederations to figure out how to fix the VAR system or how to stop bets from messing with the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE PLAYERS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Think of the 48 countries set to compete in the 2026 World Cup. Now multiply that by four. Welcome to the geopolitical chaos that is a COP: 198 parties (197 countries plus the European Union) and a crowd of observers. Among them are UN agencies, intergovernmental organizations, and NGOs. Which include private sector reps, environmentalists, scientists, and Indigenous peoples, among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE RULES OF THE GAME<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The rules of the “climate game” were laid out in 2015, when countries signed the famous Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC. The deal set three major goals: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Limit the Earth’s warming to well below 2o<\/sup>C <\/strong>compared to pre-industrial levels, making an effort to limit it to 1.5o<\/sup>C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Increasing humanity’s capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change<\/strong>. In other words, creating mechanisms to avoid disasters such as those that occurred in Rio Grande do Sul in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Aligning global financial flows with a low-emissions<\/strong>, high-resilience economy<\/strong>. Put simply: money. You can’t solve a global problem, caused mainly by the richest countries, without those rich countries financing a solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Paris Agreement marked the first time that all countries committed to presenting their own climate targets (known as Nationally Determined Contributions, NDCs). From then on, each country must present its NDC as ambitiously as possible, just like a team presenting its line-up before a match. The sum of each country’s efforts should be enough to limit the Earth’s warming to 1.5o<\/sup>C. But so far, it hasn’t worked out. It’s a lack of fair play…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, If you want to understand more about NDCs, take a look at this video:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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