The Conference of the Parties (COP) is a conference where all (or most) the countries that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meet periodically to discuss the important issues relevant to the implementation of the Convention. The UNFCCC was first brought up for signature during the 1992 Earth Summit celebrated in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, they have celebrated seven COPs. One of the most famous was COP3, celebrated in Kyoto (Japan), that produced the "Kyoto Protocol".

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) has sent a few people to previous COP meetings, and in every occasion ANS has tried to include young people into this effort. As a result, two young people (Paul Wilson & Annie Caputo) were part of the delegation that went to COP4 in Buenos Aires (Argentina).

In 1999, before the NA-YGN existed officially, three of the original NA-YGN core members were sponsored by the ANS and Atlantic Nuclear Services Ltd. to attend the 5th Conference of the Parties [COP5] to the UNFCCC. They joined the European Nuclear Society's Young Generation Network and representatives from the International Nuclear Forum [INF] to ensure that the contribution of nuclear science and technology to the mitigation and eventual solution to the problem of climate change is fully understood and taken into consideration during the UNFCCC process. Go to our website to see in more detail what happened at COP5.

COP6 was celebrated in The Hague (Netherlands) on November 13 to 24, 2000, and we had a more prominent role. The NA-YGN put together a Dream Team of North American young professionals from a variety of nuclear science and technology fields, developed our own plan of action and actively participated in COP6. The NA-YGN COP6 Dream Team started its work early in April 2000.