I’ve been following COP for as long as I can remember. As an International Relations major in undergrad, one of my student research positions was listing every sentence made by a world leader at COP into a monstrous Excel spreadsheet. And now, as a law student interested in human rights and environmental law, I read about COP nearly every day. 

But many of you must be thinking, what am I even talking about? 

The Conference of the Parties, or COPs, are yearly conferences under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) where countries, private corporations, and civil society convene as part of the global effort to combat climate change. With recent agreements like the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, these talks have gone from purely political discussions to actual legal mandates on reducing carbon emissions, investing in climate resilience measures, and providing aid to countries already affected by climate change. 

COP29, held from November 11-24, 2024, took place in Baku, Azerbaijan. Through BC’s Schiller Institute, I and fellow BC Law students Korinna Garfield and Carly Morris attended a week of the conference, along with ten other undergraduate and graduate students from across the university.

Even with everything I’ve read about COP over the years, nothing could have fully prepared me for this experience. For one, Azerbaijan was an interesting venue for COP — a country still heavily reliant on oil and gas, it was selected to host this year’s event after Russia vetoed nearly every other Eastern European group member. Most remarkable of all was COP29’s sheer size and scope. More than 55,000 people from across the world attended the conference, and there were talks happening at nearly every hour of the day. This doesn’t even include all the all-nighters pulled by country delegations to prepare drafts for the next morning’s meetings. 

I did not get around even half of what I wanted to. But to make things less overwhelming, I focused on attending the human rights and climate finance discussions, particularly those affecting developing countries. I was able to see negotiators from around the world, including the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Deputy Climate Envoy Sue Biniaz, and feel a part of these important climate conversations. Some of the highlights were meeting with Catherine Goldberg, a BC alum, who is now a U.S. diplomat and lead climate negotiator, as well as a delegate from Fiji who talked to us about the particular effects of climate change on Pacific Island countries. 

What stood out to me was the diversity of engagement at the COP, particularly in terms of age. I imagined these negotiating rooms to be dominated by career politicians, but that’s not entirely the case. Our delegation met with a few Caribbean youth representatives who are already deeply involved in their country and coalition’s climate politics. It was very inspiring to see such robust youth participation. 

Climate change is real, and lots of work still needs to be done. Deep inequalities exist not only in the impacts of climate change but also within the climate bureaucracy itself. Yet, there was an overarching sentiment of hope at COP. Year after year, thousands of people come to Baku, Glasgow, or Dubai with a shared vision that climate action must and will happen. While the sentiment around COP29 is deeply divided, to me, it signaled that this vision does live on. 

Attending COP29 was truly the opportunity of a lifetime in so many different ways. But the most meaningful part of all was sharing this experience with my fellow delegates, who each brought their unique voice to our discussions. Being a part of this delegation reinvigorated my existing passion for climate justice and opened my eyes to the wealth of possibilities before me.

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Sangeeta Kishore is a second-year student at BC Law and president of the Impact blog. Contact her at kishorsa@bc.edu.