#WhatTheCOP
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What are SBSTA and SBI?

The short answer

The two permanent working bodies that do the technical groundwork between and during COPs. SBSTA handles scientific and technological advice; SBI handles whether the agreements are actually being implemented. They meet twice a year, in Bonn around June and again at the conference.

Most of what gets decided at a COP was drafted months earlier in one of these two bodies. The June session in Bonn is where the text takes shape, away from the cameras, and it is a better guide to what will be contentious in November than most previews written in November.

They were created by the Convention itself rather than added later, which is why they have standing of their own. The 2026 June session ran in Bonn from 8 to 18 June. The next sessions convene at Antalya.

SBSTA stands for the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice, and SBI for the Subsidiary Body for Implementation. The acronyms appear constantly in COP documents and are almost never spelled out.

Where this comes from
Next question
What does COP actually stand for?Conference of the Parties. The Parties are the 198 countries that have ratified the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the COP is that treaty’s decision-making body. COP31 is the thirty-first annual meeting.What is the difference between the COP, the CMA and the CMP?They are three separate meetings for three separate treaties, held in the same building at the same time. The COP serves the 1992 Convention, the CMP serves the Kyoto Protocol and the CMA serves the Paris Agreement. At Antalya they are COP 31, CMP 21 and CMA 8.What is a cover decision?The overarching political text adopted at the end of a conference, sitting above the individual technical decisions. It is where a presidency puts the headline message, and it is usually where the hardest fight of the fortnight happens.