Paris COP21
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Negotiating Bodies
Sunday opening plenary of the ADP
The Paris 2015 UN climate conference comprises the sessions of a number of negotiating bodies under the UNFCCC which represent the 196 "Parties" to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
For an overview schedule of the two weeks of the conference, please see here. Please note that the ADP webpage has been updated with new documents on 10 November 2015.
The conference is often referred to as COP21/CMP 11 because the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) are the Climate Convention’s bodies which ultimately adopt the decisions at the end of the conference.
The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention while the CMP reviews the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and takes decisions to promote its effective implementation.
Both these guide the work of three other negotiating bodies which meet during the two weeks of the conference.
The Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) is the body that has been tasked by governments to develop the new universal climate change agreement as one of the key deliverables of the conference, as well as raising ambition to take action on climate change before 2020, the year the new agreement is to take effect.
In addition to the ADP, two other technical bodies are meeting in Paris: the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). The SBI supports the work of the COP and the CMP through the assessment and review of the effective implementation of the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. The SBSTA, also reporting to the COP and CMP, provides timely information and advice on scientific and technological matters as they relate to the Convention or its Kyoto Protocol.
The work of the COP and CMP are guided by its Bureau. The Bureau’s eleven members are delegates elected by each of five regional groups. The Bureau includes the COP President, six Vice Presidents, the Chairs of SBI and SBSTA, and a rapporteur. Each of the Convention's subsidiary bodies also has a Bureau.
For an overview of submissions made by Parties under any of these bodies, please refer to the secretariat’s Submission Portal.
Links to each of these bodies are listed below, including their respective agendas for the Paris conference.
COP: annotated agenda; addendum to the annotated agenda
In addition to the SBI, SBSTA and ADP, the COP and the CMP have established additional bodies to support the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. For information related to the election and membership of the bodies of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, please see here.