Reflections from a First-Time Attendee at the World’s Largest Climate Conference

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