African Journal of
Political Science and International Relations

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Pol. Sci. Int. Relat.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0832
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJPSIR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 411

Article in Press

Understanding the role of Conference of the Parties (COPs) in addressing Climate Change Challenges

Musa Ajiya

  •  Received: 16 January 2023
  •  Accepted: 13 March 2023
The effect of climate change is not abating, despite the numerous agreements entered into effect since the United Convention on Climate Change/UNCCC in 1992 and the over two dozen of international meetings of stakeholders to halt or reverse global warming and climate change. The general consensus among climate scientists and various communities in countries across the world is that heat waves, droughts, wild fires, floods etc, are increasing in scope and scale in an unprecedented frequency and intensity in many parts of the world. Countries, systems, and communities are being tested globally in terms of resilience and capacity to promote sustainable development for all due to the effects of severe climatic phenomena. In this year 2022 alone, the cost of climate change induced environmental disasters to the affected countries run into hundreds of billions of dollars. Majority of the affected countries are classified as low- or middle-income countries. The overall socio-economic consequence of these events on the millions of families and hundreds of communities in the affected countries is yet to be established. Using “theory of Tragedy of the Commons”, this paper seeks to interrogate: why has collective action on climate change failed thus far? The research methodology consists of content analysis of documents which are narrative in nature and secured from secondary sources obtained from internets, newspapers, journals, magazines, and books. The paper found out that member countries under the UN umbrella of Climate Change need to come up with monitoring mechanism that will compel member countries to honour their obligations by way of bringing down the global temperature rise within 1.50C through reducing GHG emissions, in addition to adopting renewable energy and tasking the industrial countries to assisting those vulnerable nation-states that are adversely affected through climate finance fund and green bonds.

Keywords: Climate Change; Climate Reparation; Climate Mitigation and Adaptation; Conference of Parties/COPs