As a law student, I was very excited to witness the bureaucracy of global governance firsthand at the COP. I did not really know what to expect. I have read about these conferences since I was in high school; I have studied the Paris Agreement and researched its impact; and, as a climate activist, I have always been intrigued by the international legal dimensions of the issue. To travel halfway across the world and see everything, in full form, felt incredibly surreal. At no other time in human history have delegates from every country in the world sat around a table and developed universal treaties together. And yet, while this is emblematically the height of global, liberal democracy, the context surrounding it could not have been more disquieting. The United States just elected a President that attempted to violently overthrow the nation’s last election; committed to imprisoning his opponents and killing asylum seekers, calling them animals, thieves, and criminals; and openly vowed to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry for a billion-dollar bribe. More bombs have been used to kill Palestinians in Gaza than were dropped in Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined during World War II. The war in Ukraine is still being waged. And natural disasters, droughts, heat waves, and famines are destroying communities and taking people’s lives at record levels every successive year.

I knew going in that COP was not the solution to any of that. But it is difficult to see everything progress as normal when these challenges really demand so much more. The most important thing I took away from the conference this year is that a new political alignment is necessary. There is an incredible dissonance you feel walking through the halls of the conference, but for anyone who gets the opportunity to attend a future COP the one thing that you will notice is just how many people are there with you. There are thousands of young people, thousands of experts and activists and scientists. The will and the energy are not lost. The institutions, as they currently exist, might be. COP might be a solution in the future, it might not be. But the impetus for trying that system was important. It still resonates. Millions of people are organized and demanding something different and the conference is just one location where solidarity within that movement can be felt and formed.

When you participate in this program, your role as an active force in history begins. Everything you see that is unjust or too slow or too ineffective or too captured: that is your project. Even if you fear that the institutions tasked with solving a problem are ineffective, it is always important to recognize where power is, how it is being used, and to develop theories to wield it more effectively. One of the most impactful tools of the legal profession is the power to decide what is legitimate and what is not. That can be weaponized, or it can be used earnestly to protect people, but the worst thing we can do is ignore it because it is failing at the latter. COP itself is a legal institution with the power to legitimize a path forward. And everywhere you see unity; people fighting for what is just, in spite of violent opposition; defending one another; and traveling thousands of miles to make their voices heard, that is where you build the resilience to take on those fights. That is how we create a politics for a more impactful, just, and democratic international governance. The will to create that is there and I am so grateful for the experience of attending COP because it gave me the opportunity to bear witness to all of that. More clearly now than ever, I know where I need to put my energy.

Colin Rosadino is a law student at the UConn School of Law.

Climate justice is a confusing thing. You want to believe it, understand it, see it, and address it. But, it’s honestly confusing, messy, and quite frankly disruptive.

This is my second time having the privilege to attend a COP. My first COP, which was COP27 in Egypt, was my first real unraveling of climate justice. I always believed myself to be someone that cared about social issues, and then felt it was my responsibility or moral imperative to understand climate justice. 

At COP, there is an incredible display of climate leaders from around the globe. From Ministers in the EU making climate finance deals to frontline communities in South Africa screaming at the top of their lungs to demand justice for their lives. It was the first time I felt in my bones how unequally different communities across the earth were to be affected by the climate crisis, and how it felt. How it felt to them, their reaction to it, and how it felt in my body.

I knew it was an injustice. Although, not only how unequally consequences of climate change were to be felt, but something more pervasive. I was lucky to have university professors on the trip, including Phoebe Godfrey, that were welcoming enough to hold my hand to the learnings of climate justice. 

Climate justice revealed to me that the roots of the climate crisis are not just greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but the legacy of decades long exploitation of people and our planet in the pursuit of profit. It doesn’t just look at GHG emissions at the problem, but rather as the symptom of a systemic wide problem of what our society values and the harm it’s willing to conduct to achieve it.

Now, it’s time to hold space for how this feels. This is scary. This makes my bones hurt. My heart deflates, and genuinely rattles my body with fear. What was already a complicated and atrocious problem of GHG emissions, just got bigger and more complicated. Climate justice seeks to unpack the power and politics that is wrapped up in the climate crisis that often attempts to be shielded. 

At COP29, this year I wanted to continue my understanding of the complexity of climate justice. This past year, I had been exposed to a lot of learnings around the impact of the military and global war as tied to the climate crisis, highlighted by the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan, and how it prevails to upholding, perpetuating, and causing global injustices. I had also learned more about topics including colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, and facism – how these concepts are defined and how they present themselves in policy and practice. 

Climate justice is overwhelming. And I wanted COP29 to give me more clarity and insight on what climate justice is, how to communicate about it, and how to address it. I wanted to understand my role in climate justice and climate injustice, and how I can be an individual person and community member in the movement. I want to give my mind, body, and soul to the folks at the frontline, and fully absorb and embody the struggles they are amplifying and what actions they are asking for.

And to be frank, I struggled. I would listen in on education events, and be filled with self-doubt, confusion, and fear around messaging and desperately trying to find the truth. My heart would feel one thing, and my mind would take my body in another direction. Some webinars would talk about capitalism, some would not. Some events would digest the military, some wouldn’t with a 10-foot pole. If I want to amplify climate justice, who am I to listen to? What am I to amplify? What am I to unpack in myself, and how do I not reaffirm false narratives and perpetuate harm?

One of the last events that our team went to during the Blue Zone at COP29 was the People’s Planetary. This event included community activists at the frontlines of climate injustice across Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, Africa, and more to vocalize the reality of their experiences. It was one of the first events of COP29 where I got to experience people just fully telling their truth. A Palestinian activist showed footage of people being brutalized by the Israeli military and their homes being bombed. A Lebanese activist shouted how their family was being attacked and how afraid they were. A Sudan activist cried on how no one was talking about Sudan while people were being murdered. She could barely get through their sentences. 

I felt afraid. Scared. Sad. Those feelings didn’t go away with this event. They intensified. However, it was one of the most important events I could have attended at COP29. Activists weren’t performing a stunt. They weren’t academics trying to prove a point, or industry trying to paint a certain image for their brand. They were just being honest. They were being real about their experiences, and how the powers that were not investing in climate finance at COP29, including the Global North, were raveging and sacrificing their communities. Murder and harm is ugly and disgusting, but it’s a reality of people in the Global South and what the fossil fuel industry and militarized countries have done and will continue to do to communities. 

This event showed me that to understand climate justice is not to be perfect, an academic, or the most experienced person in the room. It’s about being brave, and honoring the truth of what powerful countries and fossil fuel industries have done to our planet and people.

These activists at the frontline know this truth because it’s a part of their lived experience. They cannot look away, and watch their communities be harmed and die. We must listen to them, and be brave enough to feel it in our bones. We must grieve, be sickened, and feel empowered enough to talk about it in our communities and shout it at the people in power. Not only because we should care about our brothers and sisters that are in harm’s way, but also it’s the only way to address the climate crisis honestly. Systems based on exploitation, violence, dominance will never serve the people, but only the interests of money and the people in power.

This article itself was hard to write. I was worried I would talk about climate justice wrong or say the wrong things. But, what I want to take from COP29 is to not be afraid, and trust myself to know the truths that I have heard. We must call out the Global North, the military, the fossil fuel industry for the harms they have perpetuated and the power they hold.

I ask you to stand with me, hold my hand, and be brave enough to amplify this truth as it is. Let’s talk about colonialism, racism, capitalism, imperialism, facism, militarism. Let’s see what we know and what we need to learn. We can be sad and afraid, but we can do it together just as we did at the People’s Planetary. This is where we can seek liberation from the climate crisis – not in resisting the truth, but resisting exploitation and aiming for revolution. 

Sydney Collins is a Campus Climate Action Corps Connecticut – Climate Action Leader with the Office of Sustainability. She was also a UConn@COP Fellow in 2022.

I arrived at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, with a mix of hope and skepticism. With the world’s temperature getting close to the 1.5^oC threshold, the stakes couldn’t have been higher. What struck me from the outset was the diversity of voices—from grassroots activists amplifying the concerns of the most vulnerable to policymakers navigating the complex web of international negotiations. This convergence reaffirmed a fundamental truth: addressing the climate crisis demands both collective resolve and individual responsibility.

As the conference unfolded (I joined in its critical final week), the outcomes, while not shocking, left me pondering on the progress we’ve made and the gaps we’ve yet to close. Here are my key takeaways:

1. Financing Gaps: Progress, but Far from Equity

Let’s start with a win. The headline commitment to triple climate finance from wealthy nations to $300 billion annually by 2035 was a significant step forward. Yet, even as I welcomed this progress, the numbers felt glaringly inadequate.

The reality is stark: developing nations need trillions, not billions, to meet the dual challenges of mitigation and adaptation. And much of this funding still comes as loans, deepening the debt burdens of countries already grappling with the devastating impacts of climate change.

One promising aspect was the acknowledgment of private finance as a critical lever to scale climate action. If harnessed effectively, it could bridge the gap between pledges and the real resources required. But to meet our net-zero goals by 2050, wealthy nations must do more—both in terms of direct contributions and by creating systems that ensure equitable access to funds.

2. Fossil Fuels: The Elephant in the (Drafting) Room

This was, without question, one of the most frustrating aspects of COP29. After nearly three decades of climate summits, the absence of a clear, actionable plan to phase out fossil fuels was glaring. Hearing the passionate pleas of activists and vulnerable communities during side events made the lack of progress on this front even harder to stomach. Ignoring the complete phase out of fossil fuel is like treating the symptoms without addressing the disease.

3. Carbon Markets: A Rare Bright Spot

If there was one area where progress felt meaningful, it was carbon markets. I’ve been skeptical of these mechanisms in the past, given their history of loopholes and greenwashing. But this year marked a turning point.

For the first time, we saw real clarity on the rules for emissions trading under Articles 6.2 and 6.4 of the Paris Agreement. These guidelines are critical to prevent double-counting and ensuring transparency. While not perfect, they offer a foundation to rebuild trust in carbon markets and attract investments into crucial areas like reforestation, nature-based solutions, and carbon storage.

The challenge now is implementation. Robust enforcement mechanisms will be essential to maintain credibility, and it will take a concerted effort to ensure these markets deliver real, measurable impacts.

As we turn toward COP30 in Belém, Brazil, I’m left with a mix of hope and urgency. There’s however an opportunity here. The updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due next year could inject the ambition we didn’t see in Baku. Brazil, as host, has already shown leadership with its ambitious emissions reduction target, and I hope this sets the tone for more transformative action.

Every COP reminds me of the duality of this process. It’s frustratingly slow, often bogged down in politics and compromises. And yet, it’s one of the few spaces where the entire world comes together to confront the climate crisis. For me, COP29 reinforced the importance of pushing for systemic change—not just within the negotiations but also in how we approach the climate crisis more broadly. Whether it’s finance, fossil fuels, or adaptation, we need bold, collaborative action that matches the scale of the challenge. Incrementalism isn’t going to cut it anymore.

As I left Baku, I felt a mix of exhaustion and determination. The road ahead is daunting, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the fight against climate change is worth every step.

Mayowa Oladele is a Ph.D. candidate in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.