Since the entering into force of the UNFCCC in 1994, annual conferences of the parties (COP) have been held in other to, among others, negotiate binding targets and rules for mitigating climate change and adapting to its impacts. A binding commitment was agreed upon in 1997 at COP3 in Kyoto. It took more than seven years before the Kyoto-Protocol came into force in February 2005, because ratification of 55 countries representing 55% of the world's CO2 emissions was required. Since then, the annual session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP) takes place in conjunction with the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), in short COP/CMP. Moreover, there is a regular annual meeting of the subsidiary bodies (SB) each year in early summer and various workshops on special issues.

Gender dimension

• Gender equity is neither mentioned in the Framework Convention on Climate Change nor in the Kyoto Protocol. It is only recently that some parties, in particular those from Annex II countries, have got aware of the necessity to include gender equality into the debates. A breakthrough was reached at COP13/CMP3.
  
• The organisation of the process is different from other related UN processes such as the CSD: there are no major groups, and active participation of oberver organisations (possibility to speak, participation at workshops) is limited.
• Debates are mostly economically or technologically driven. A link to sustainability principles is missing. Therefore it is hard to introduce gender equality into the debates and negotiations.

Gender Statistics