What is COP and why is it important?

COP31 will be held in Antalya, Türkiye in 2026.

The latest UNEP report finds that the chance to limit warming to under 1.5 degrees with no overshoot has gone. But urgent action can bring warming back to this threshold by 2100.

In this context, COP31 is a critical moment to turn ambition to reality and scale up fast and fair climate action.

Oxfam attends and mobilises around COP because the climate crisis is a justice issue.

People living in poverty, particularly in the Global South, are the least responsible for the emissions driving this crisis – but they’re the most affected by its consequences.

At COP, we:

• Amplify the voices of those living on the frontlines of climate change.
• Advocate for fair and accessible climate finance, especially for a just transition to renewable energy, adaptation, and loss and damage.
• Demand accountability from wealthy nations and major polluters.

We attend not just to witness – but to speak truth to power, challenge injustice, influence the negotiations and work with partners to build a fairer, safer future for all.

This term, ‘just transition’ simply means that the transition to a greener future is fair for all involved, especially those most affected by the changing climate.

The climate crisis is driving the switch to renewable energy and offering huge opportunities to remake our economies and societies. But this involves political choices, which can either reproduce existing inequalities or aim to reduce them. A just transition to a greener future must ultimately be fair, for workers, and communities.

COP30 in Brazil offers a major opportunity to make progress on a just transition, as it could potentially adopt the “Belém Action Mechanism”. This mechanism would mean that the principle of fairness – and a focus on creating better lives - would be front and centre in climate action.

This could happen through:

• Providing technical and finance support for countries and communities to undertake fair climate action
• Ensuring groups most affected by the climate crisis are at the heart of decision-making
• Making climate action fair by protecting people’s rights.

The first COP took place in 1995, in Berlin, Germany. Known as COP1, it marked the beginning of formal international negotiations on climate change under the UNFCCC.

Since then, COP summits have been held every year (except for 2020 due to COVID-19), each one building – sometimes frustratingly slowly – on what came before. For 30 years, topics have ranged from emissions reduction targets to finance, adaptation, and justice.

COP has delivered some major climate milestones:

• 1997 – Kyoto Protocol (COP3): The first legally binding emissions reduction agreement for industrialised countries.
• 2015 – Paris Agreement (COP21): A landmark global deal to limit global warming to well below 2°C – and ideally 1.5°C.
• 2021 – Glasgow Pact (COP26): Countries agreed to revisit and strengthen their national targets, although follow-through has lagged.

But despite these headline moments, global emissions are still rising, and most countries are not on track to meet their commitments. Oxfam and many others continue to call for COP to move beyond pledges to real delivery – especially for communities already bearing the brunt of the crisis.

Adopted at COP21, the Paris Agreement was a breakthrough – with nearly every country agreeing to work together to tackle climate change.

But over a decade later, it’s clear that many of those promises remain unfulfilled. While some progress has been made – such as growing investment in renewable energy – frontline communities still face increasing climate shocks with little support or are paying the price for a transition that is not proving fair to them.

COP30 wasn’t the turning point we wanted, we need COP31 to deliver the urgency of action required.

The Paris Agreement succeeded in setting a shared global target: to limit warming to 1.5C. It triggered waves of climate action, inspired national targets, and raised global awareness.

But it hasn’t delivered enough. Emissions are still rising. The most vulnerable communities are still being left behind, while the super-rich and corporations are continuing to emit even more.

Climate change is a human rights crisis. Oxfam is working alongside communities who are already adapting and resisting – but they need global solidarity.

At COP31, Oxfam is calling on governments meeting to:

• Make rich polluters pay to significantly and rapidly curb their carbon emissions, including through permanent wealth and income taxes, a permanent tax on fossil fuel corporations, and punitive taxes on high-emitting luxury items like private jets.
• Substantially increase climate finance for the Global South, prioritizing public, grant-based finance rather than loans that deepen debt. The amount for adaptation should be tripled by 2035.
• Radically reduce inequality within and between countries, including through climate-resilient public infrastructure and public services.
• End profiteering from climate disasters. Governments need to curb corporate power in emergency response, reconstruction, and food systems during disasters.

You can help.

Oxfam has been attending COP since 2008 and in that time we have been calling for urgent action to tackle climate change and inequality.