Cop29 bingo: a beginner’s guide to climate acronyms

This is the one time of year where the eyes of the world are all on climate change. When it makes the news every single night, and everyone hopes that, miraculously, almost 200 countries will somehow put aside insurmountable differences to come together and solve this crisis in a tidy two-week period. Then, we can all stop worrying about how our family and friends will survive the largest threat to civilisation.

Another UN climate summit is upon us as negotiators, world leaders and professional hangers-on have gathered for more talks, this time in Baku, Azerbaijan. Once again, thousands of people attempt to move action on climate change forward at glacial speed (hopefully not retreating at glacial speed which is happening considerably faster).

These UN conferences can feel far removed from the daily life of the average person switching on the news or reading an article, only to be relentlessly bombarded the most complicated and impenetrable jargon and acronyms imaginable. So, do you know your NDC from your NCQG?

Obviously, these acronyms are perfectly fine and well-intentioned from an internal UN perspective, where they are used daily by climate experts and national representatives. But as soon as they enter the wider world, they become utterly meaningless to most people.

I spend a lot of time speaking to non-experts because, alongside lecturing, I am a comedian who talks about climate change. Which I realise is an odd combination, but not as odd as being Cop president and chief executive of an oil company.

I am well versed in trying to make jargon more accessible and dare I say, funny, to the public. So, I’ve got a game for you to make understanding this all a bit more fun – get your pens ready for Cop29 acronym bingo. Six points if you come across all of them in the next news bulletin you read or listen to.

UNFCCC

A sailor went to the UN F triple sea sea sea. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the process for a global response to tackle climate change. The international treaty was initially signed in 1992 and since then, this organisation has been the party host for Cop, bringing all these countries together.

Cop

Emergency. Emergency. Call 999. The Conference of the Parties is the annual meeting of the countries or regions signed up to the UNFCCC. Here the negotiations dictate the world’s plan of action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It is often referred to as the UN climate talks, summit or conference – that’s more informative than referring to Cop. Perhaps the name could incorporate the year in question, rather than the number of times that Cops have happened. So “climate talks 24 in Baku” would be much more self-explanatory than Cop29 (the 29th climate Cop). Especially when there’s an equivalent biodiversity Cop (currently numbered at Cop16, but that’s another story).

NDC

As easy as ABC, it’s an NDC. This is a nice simple one. Nationally determined contributions are the promises that each party (country) of the UNFCCC makes to all the other countries about what they plan to do about climate change. It includes their pledges to adhere to the legally binding Paris agreement goals. It is decided by each party themselves, and they basically say “we’re going to try our best and this is what we’re going to do”.

NCQG

With a lack of vowels, this one is a mouthful – it sounds like a company that runs a multi-storey car park. NCQG refers to the new collective quantified goal on climate finance. And if you think the acronym is dry then you should see the negotiations. (I actually sat in on the negotiations for these last year for an afternoon because I am an absolute nerd).

The NCQG determines how much money rich countries should be sending to poorer countries to actually help them, given that they are the countries who’ve contributed the least to causing climate change, the main countries impacted by climate change, and have the least amount of money to spend on dealing with the impacts or reducing their emissions.

Nap

True to their name, reading them will often put you to sleep. The national adaptation plans are developed by countries to prepare for the current and coming climate impacts such as droughts, floods and extreme weather in their own countries and how their people and economies will deal with a shift in climate.

Bicfit

Not a watch that measures your daily steps and heart rate. This was actually a new one to me this year. It is the Baku initiative for climate finance, investment and trade. It appears to be a voluntary initiative that aims to bring together various elements of climate trade, finance and investment that has been introduced this year at the Azerbaijan summit. Basically, nobody knows how this will work yet. It might be useful, it might not. But boy is that a long acronym.

So, making dry climate negotiations relevant and engaging to the general public is hard. There should be more focus on simply using the negotiations to tell good climate stories during this annual two-week period. About why the negotiations are important, rather than the ins and outs of possible policies and agreements. We have people’s attention. Let’s improve climate literacy to use it to better effect.

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Matt Winning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.