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Climate Policy: Is it time to downsize the COPs?
11/07/2025
The Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have transformed into ‘global mega events’, attracting unparalleled levels of participation from non-state actors (NSA) – including NGOs, thinktanks, researchers, and representatives of business, or cities. COP28 in late 2023 in Dubai was attended by more than 80,000 participants, of which around one third were non-state actors making it comfortably the largest climate conference in history.