COP22 — the 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, for the uninitiated — is being dubbed, somewhat hopefully, the “COP of action” when it comes to halting global warming and staving off environmental disaster.
Last year’s Paris climate agreement put in place the procedural framework and timeline countries will adhere to as they try to keep global temperatures from rising past the “dangerous” benchmark of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Now, COP22 is supposed to start translating those agreements into concrete action, money and more ambitious commitments.
Marrakech, Morocco, is hosting this year’s conference from Nov. 7 to 18, against a backdrop of record global temperatures, a U.S. presidential election that features a candidate who pledged to back out of the Paris agreement, and a general sense of insecurity about how much countries are really willing to cooperate with one another anymore.
About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
