Now one week removed from my experience from Baku, I can safely say that I have been profoundly impacted by my time at COP29. Being able to see up close and personal the machinations of global politics has frustrated me to my core. Sitting behind the U.S. delegation in the negotiation room and helplessly watching on as they and their geopolitical allies obstruct references to indigenous peoples and local communities gutted me. There was a stark juxtaposition between the side events that I attended which discussed the vast sums of money and attention needed for climate adaptation and decarbonization and the negotiations that were happening down the hall without the remotest sense of urgency for action. Although the gloom and doom came out in full force, I have to be forthcoming and say that I fully expected that I would be disappointed with the legal process. It was unfortunate, but not unexpected to see the pavilions centering OPEC, methane in sustainability, and hydrogen solutions from petrostates like Saudi Arabia and Russia. This COP had over 1,700 oil lobbyists in attendance with rumblings of oil deals being reached at the conference. There is something uniquely repulsive about lingering in a space aimed to combat the climate crisis and brazenly going counter to all of that in favor of further destruction and death. Something that I did find myself feeling good about after my time at the conference was the random people I met who had dedicated themselves to sustainability in their respective fields. It filled me with confidence to know that there are people making concrete differences in their communities worldwide. From the conversations I had with researchers and municipal workers on the bus to COP, and the local population engaged in sustainable development at home, I was inspired. There was this sense of purpose that many of these incredible people had, and even despite their disillusionment with the COP process, were present and doing their work all the same. At the end of the day, it is upsetting to see that so much is being done by so many incredible people, but due to our systems of incentivization and intense economic stratification, it feels that so much is out of most peoples’ hands. 

COP was an incredible experience and one that I would not trade for anything. Being exposed to the height of global sustainability and an incredible city in Baku gave me perspective that I could get no other way. I can only hope to attain further perspectives in my climate journey.  

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