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The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the governing body established by most major multilateral environmental agreements. It brings together every state that has ratified, acceded to, or otherwise become a party to the treaty, and is empowered to review implementation, adopt rules and procedures, approve budgets, and negotiate new instruments under the parent convention.
The best-known COP is that of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which has met annually since COP1 in Berlin in 1995. UNFCCC COPs have produced landmark outcomes including the Kyoto Protocol (COP3, 1997) and the Paris Agreement (COP21, 2015). Once a protocol or agreement enters into force, its own parties typically convene alongside the COP — as the CMP for the Kyoto Protocol and the CMA for the Paris Agreement — so a single annual meeting often serves multiple legal tracks.
COPs also exist under other regimes, including:
Decision-making procedure varies. The UNFCCC has never formally adopted its draft rules of procedure because parties could not agree on voting, so decisions are taken by consensus in practice — giving any single party significant leverage. Each COP is chaired by a Presidency held by the host country, which steers the agenda and brokers compromise texts. Sessions are supported by subsidiary bodies (such as the UNFCCC's SBSTA and SBI) that prepare technical and implementation questions between meetings. Observer states, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and accredited media may attend but cannot vote.
The UNGA is an organ of the United Nations open to all UN member states on any topic, while a COP is the governing body of a specific treaty and includes only states that have ratified that treaty.