The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a conference held every 2 years by UN countries, where groups of officials, government delegates and environmental organisations gather to discuss and plan action to combat biodiversity loss. The theme for the 2024 COP16 conference is "Peace with Nature".
COP16 will hold nations accountable on the actions (or lack thereof) that have been taken to halt or reverse biodiversity decline. To learn more about the actions that the UK Government can take to reverse nature loss, you can read The Wildlife Trusts' Local to Global Report here.
You should be able to follow along to important updates during COP16 using your preferred news channels.
There are various kinds of COP. The most well-known is the Climate Change COP (UNFCC) and this year, COP29 runs from 11th-22nd November in Azerbaijan. For a comparison between the Biodiversity and Climate COP, click here. We enjoy listening to experts discuss the Climate COP and what has been achieved by listening to the podcast 'The Climate Question', produced by the BBC World Service.
