By Necia Quast

Last November I attended the annual UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan as an observer for the League of Women Voters of the U.S. What exactly is a COP and what happens there? COP stands for Conference of Parties, in this case to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that went into effect in 1994. Each year the parties negotiate agreements and commitments to address the threats presented by global warming. For example, in 1997 they agreed to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The last decade focused on implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement that covers mitigation, adaptation and finance, and goal of limiting the average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C. Mitigation is limiting future warming by reducing emissions and removing carbon from the atmosphere. Adaptation is making changes to address the impact of a warming planet on health, agriculture, housing and ecosystems. Finance is marshaling and allocating money to pay for mitigation and adaptation measures and to compensate for losses and damages due to climate change.

Each country sends a delegation to the official negotiations, the centerpiece of the COP. Other UN and international agencies and organizations attend, plus hundreds of organizations and observers representing global civil society, there to lobby for their interests. These are organized into nine formal constituencies: Business and Industry, known as BINGOS, Environmental organizations (ENGOs) Agricultural interests (Farmers), Indigenous Peoples (IPO) Local governments and Municipalities (LGMA), Research and Independent Orgs (RINGOS) Trade Unions (TUNGOs) Women and Gender (WGC), Children and Youth (YOUNGOs).

Along with the negotiations, the convention operates like an academic conference and business convention. Most countries, UN organizations, and some observer groups have pavilions that host programs throughout the COP. There are hundreds of panel discussions and expert meetings on a huge variety of topics in the official Blue Zone. A secondary Green Zone is open to the public, and with private companies and non-profits showing off environmental technology, research, and expertise, and hosting yet more panels and discussions. Finally, there are hundreds of journalists, and a non-stop schedule of press conferences from both delegations and observers. Over 50,000 people were official attendees at COP29.

Each year the COP negotiations aim to push forward the agenda on all three Paris areas, but with one being the focus. COP29 was a Finance COP, with the main goal of negotiating new financial targets to address climate change and to identify the priorities for using the money. With progress stalled in the mitigation and adaptation talks, those discussions were postponed while the parties focused on new finance commitments. As the final scheduled day drew to a close, they only got a draft agreement released late Friday afternoon. The negotiations were held over and continued around the clock until a final agreement was reached Sunday night. While it increased the funding goal over the previous one, from $100 billion to $300 billion, it still fell far short of the estimated $1.3 trillion amount needed to meet the agreed goals, leaving most observers disappointed.