Read on for an insider’s perspective from a first-time attendee at the world’s largest conference on climate change, which took place in late November in Azerbaijan.
The 29th annual Conference of the Parties (COP29) was both an inspiring and contentious time to be a first-time attendee. The conference, which the United Nations convenes to negotiate international climate agreements, took place just one week after the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States. Trump plans to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement (again), a treaty which has been the cornerstone of negotiations at the COP since 2016.
COP29 was hosted in Azerbaijan, where nearly 50 percent of national GDP and over 90 percent of export revenue depends on the production of oil and natural gas. This backdrop complicated the already complex process of negotiating measures to address climate change.
Tension was apparent throughout the conference, which began with Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani president, declaring oil and natural gas a “gift from God.” However, the conference also surfaced some unexpected allies of the Paris Agreement, with the CEO of ExxonMobil urging the incoming Trump administration to stay in the agreement.
While I could talk for hours about my impressions from my five days at COP29, I’ll just note here that I walked away with the following three main takeaways: the climate world is simultaneously vast and surprisingly familiar, the COP provides a much-needed forum for diverse conversations, and official negotiations are slow and painful.
Big World, Small Circles
When I walked into the venue for COP29, I was struck by the sheer scale of the event (though my colleagues assured me the scale was nothing compared to last year’s conference in Dubai). Over 50,000 people from around the world descended on Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The host city reconfigured a soccer stadium for the conference, which felt like a small city within the capital, with foot traffic flowing in clear lanes. In fact, if you found yourself walking the wrong way, turning around was nearly impossible. I quickly concluded that I would be doing a lot of walking, perhaps setting a new weekly record for myself. By the end of each day, I easily had walked 20,000 steps without ever seeing the sun.
The COP is more than just a forum for official negotiations. The conference sees thousands of representatives, researchers, companies, activists, and others come to work on climate change from myriad angles. A practically endless list of subtopics emerge, such as biodiversity, gender, geoengineering, and climate and trade (about which Resources for the Future hosted two side events).
Within the circles that are focused on specific topics, the world at COP29 gets surprisingly small. I started to notice that, despite the overwhelming size of the conference, I was bumping into the same faces and encountering old colleagues. That I was a rookie must have been clear, as almost everyone I met asked me, “Is this your first COP?”—a reminder that the conference engenders a sense of shared experience for everyone attending.
Entrée of Negotiation, Side of Wonk
The conference is split into two different worlds: official negotiations between UN member nations and everything else. “Everything else” includes a mix of exhibits, side events, organized meetings, and informal conversations, where more intimate circles form around particular subtopics. These informal venues provide an excellent opportunity to share knowledge and ideas with a wide range of stakeholders that one otherwise may not have a chance to engage with.
Credit: Rustamli Photos / Shutterstock
The list of side events throughout the two weeks of the conference is exhaustive. Attendees are able to choose from a breadth of detailed discussions on specific topics that feature diverse panelists. I attended several side events, which was a refreshing opportunity to hear different perspectives and burst the bubble of the climate world in Washington, DC, that I work in.
One (perhaps obvious) realization that struck me was the difference in realities for countries in the Global South and the Global North. In many ways, the disproportionate focus of countries in the Global North on mitigating climate change is a luxury that many other countries cannot afford. For instance, in a session on solar geoengineering, many of the most vocal advocates for continued research on the subject came from regions of the Global South that are experiencing particular vulnerability to the impacts of climate change today, rather than in the future. The session was a powerful reminder that the COP provides a rare and crucial opportunity to hear from voices that often are sidelined in global conversations.
Negotiations in Slow Motion
Although negotiations at COP29 were expected to be less consequential than at previous conferences, lofty goals still were on the table. Delegates from UN member nations aimed to finalize a nine-year negotiation process on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which enables nations to trade credits that represent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and to agree on new financing commitments that support developing countries in transitioning to clean energy and adapting to climate change. While everything at COP29 outside these official negotiations was moving a mile a minute, the negotiations themselves seemed to move at a glacial pace.
To better understand the negotiation process, I sat in on a session in which delegates were debating whether to use the phrase “positive and negative impacts” or “impacts” in a section of an agreement. For 30 minutes, the conversation did not move past these words, which seemed like an incredibly minor detail compared to the immense decisions that needed to be made.
Although these discussions might seem trivial, they indicated the delicacy and diligence of international climate negotiations, which are made all the more difficult by the rule that any decision at a COP requires unanimous consensus.
While everything at COP29 outside these official negotiations was moving a mile a minute, the negotiations themselves seemed to move at a glacial pace.
As I watched the negotiations unfold, I wondered whether the world could afford this kind of process, given the rapid pace at which the impacts of climate change are worsening: 2024 likely will be the first year that the world surpasses 1.5°C of warming relative to preindustrial levels. After watching negotiators debate four words without making progress, I wondered how we ever could agree on bigger issues. Even more importantly, how can countries translate the words of global climate agreements into action? Perhaps the requirement for unanimity leads to agreements at the lowest common denominator. But if unanimity doesn’t work, what principle could be used, instead? And if agreements aren’t negotiated through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, what forum could be an alternative?
A Long Road Ahead
As a first-time observer, I won’t pretend to have answers to these questions. Despite some tense negotiations at COP29, the conference ended with agreement on both Article 6 and a new financing deal. Time will tell whether these commitments are fulfilled, but I have a reinforced appreciation for the importance of independent, nonpartisan research in translating policy ideas into action.
I left the conference uncertain about the future of international climate negotiations, inspired by the inclusion of diverse people in the conversation about climate change, and well over my weekly step goal.
If you’re looking for more details about COP29, climate, and trade, I shared further thoughts in a brief interview for our In Focus video series:
