The COP is the annual meeting of countries that have ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Convention is an international environmental treaty that was signed during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
The treaty aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are at the root of the global warming hypothesis. The treaty did not set mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions but provided for protocols that would set mandatory limits on emissions, the main one being the Kyoto Protocol.
