Community Voices

My experience at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) in Baku, Azerbaijan this fall was fascinating, chaotic, illuminating, and frustrating. Imagine thousands of people from hundreds of countries in a series of enclosed spaces, darting between negotiations that never seem to be in the right place at the right time, official events, and among crowded, colorful pavilions. It’s layered, but at its heart, is a negotiation among Parties, which if you don’t pay attention, can take a backseat to the rest of the hubbub.

COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, was a conference defined by contradiction. The location itself is laced with a trichotomy of old, older, and brand new; the old city is almost carelessly riddled with 1,300-year-old relics from the Persian empire, while the remainder of Baku’s architecture largely harkens back to its time as a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, from 1922 to 1991. Soviet-era construction is punctuated by extremely modern development, with Zaha Hadid’s buildings sprinkling the skyline.

By the time I left Baku, the technical negotiations on the NCQG had concluded, and ministerial negotiations were set to begin in the second week, taking place behind closed doors for observers. While I hoped that countries reached an ambitious agreement on the NCQG by the end of COP, my greatest hope was that climate justice be reflected in the outcome. Only then can we begin to close the gap between the pledges and tangible impacts.

When the Environmental Studies Department sent out an email announcing the opportunity to join the Tufts/Fletcher delegation heading to COP29, I immediately applied. I was eager to visit Azerbaijan, a region I had never been to before, and to experience the cultural diversity that arose from nearly 200 countries coming together. Most importantly, I was looking forward to learning from leaders from across disciplines, weaving together different perspectives to find solutions to tackle the climate crisis in a just and equitable manner.