The UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 (2 – 13 December 2019) took place under the Presidency of the Government of Chile and will be held with logistical support from the Government of Spain. The President-designate for the conference is Ms. Carolina Schmidt, Minister of Environment of Chile.

What was the UN Climate Change conference all about?

The conference was designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. Following agreement on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement at COP 24 in Poland last year, a key objective was to complete several matters with respect to the full operationalization of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The conference furthermore served to build ambition ahead of 2020, the year in which countries have committed to submit new and updated national climate action plans. Crucial climate action work was taken forward in areas including finance, the transparency of climate action, forests and agriculture, technology, capacity building, loss and damage, indigenous peoples, cities, oceans and gender.

Sessions and other events

The conference included the twenty-fifth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25), the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 15), and the second session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA 2). The fifty-first sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 51) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 51) took place 2 - 9 December 2019. 

The pre-sessional period was from 25 November - 1 December 2019.

The conference also showcased the wealth of climate action undertaken by non-Party Stakeholders and help galvanize the action of regions, cities, business, investors and civil society. See an overview of all events here. The COP 25 High-Level Climate Action Champion was Mr. Gonzalo Muñoz, business entrepreneur and social change-maker.