Climate Negotiations Under Scrutiny: Are <scp>UNFCCC COPs</scp> Up To the Challenge?

ABSTRACT The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) plays a crucial role in global efforts to tackle the climate crisis. At annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) and intersessional meetings, the international community gathers to advance climate policy and action. However, the negative consequences of a warming planet become more and more evident, whereas multilateral negotiations to tackle the climate crisis are falling short of what is needed. This article provides an integrative assessment of the existing reform options of the COP in terms of their implications for both democracy and effectiveness. We find that the most concrete reform options often involve practical difficulties or trade‐offs. Moreover, although some smaller reforms (such as capacity building or agenda streamlining) are achievable, larger reforms such as increasing meaningful nonparty stakeholder engagement remain difficult to achieve. The biggest stumbling block for any significant reform lies in the UNFCCC decision‐making procedures, namely the consensus requirement.