Is COP29 the new Cannes?

Brief history of COP29

Much like the annual Film Festival de Cannes, the United Nation’s climate conferences have been gathering prestige each year and attracting attendees from all over the world. The Conference of the Parties (COP), formed of world leaders, is the main decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international climate summit that entered into force in 1994¹. The UNFCCC has since supported crucial international climate negotiations, including the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 (COP3) and more recent Paris Agreement in 2015 (COP21) as part of which 196 parties entered a legally binding international treaty to “limit the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”².

COP29 Attendees and Apologies

COP29 was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, a venue with a French Riviera-style coastal setting but lacking the Cannes glitz and glamour.  Despite this disadvantage, the conference nonetheless attracted over 55,000 participants³.  With around 2000 of those participants joining online and just over 2000 of the in-person attendees being from Azerbaijan⁴, the bulk of attendees came from overseas. COP29 was therefore the second-largest climate COP in history, attracting increasing numbers of intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, other agencies and media⁵. Nonetheless, popularity can come at a cost - similar to COP28, as it attracted criticism from negotiators for being too big, with some labelling the event as a circus⁶. For perspective, the Cannes Film Festival is known as one of the largest media events in the world, attended by around 4000 journalists⁷, meanwhile COP29 had over 3500 media representatives register for the conference⁸.

While increased attendance and media representation could be argued to increase awareness of the climate crisis, many observers believe that it also undermines the very ethos of the conference and its aims⁹, increasing emissions as tens of thousands of people flew to attend in person. Plane tracking data also highlighted how the number of incoming private jets doubled over the COP29 weekend compared to the same week last year¹⁰, revealing a disconnect between the climate conference’s purpose and reality.

Despite the increase in overall attendance, fewer world leaders appeared than previous conferences in part due to the expansion of activities beyond official climate negotiations to now include side events such as trade fairs¹¹. The ‘no-shows’ included leaders from some of the world’s biggest polluters, such as President Biden, President Macron and Prime Minister Modi.

Prominent finance bosses, including the bosses of Bank of America, BlackRock, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank, were also among those that decided not to attend COP29, despite the purpose of this conference revolving around determining a new global financial target to support developing countries¹².

Key outcomes

While the G77 group of developing countries proposed receiving a minimum of $500 billion a year to support them with both climate mitigation and adaptation, the agreed upon amount was $300 billion per year by 2035¹³. Despite receiving criticism, this amount was at least an increase from the initial climate finance target of $100 billion per year, agreed upon in Paris during COP21.

An agreement was also reached regarding Article 6 on carbon markets; however disappointingly, they failed to reach a conclusion on how the ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels should be taken forward¹⁴.

Failed discussions around fossil fuels were unsurprising, considering the backdrop of Donald Trump’s re-election and the increased presence of oil lobbyists at COP29 dominating discussions¹⁵. The president of COP29’s host country set the tenor for the event when he announced to COP29 attendees that oil and gas were a “gift of God”, criticising "Western fake news" regarding Azerbaijan’s emissions and the blame attributed to nations with fossil fuel reserves¹⁶.  

What’s next?

COP30 will be held November 2025 in Belém, Brazil, to highlight the importance of environmental conservation, including protecting the Amazon rainforest. At this conference, countries will be expected to showcase their updated plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDC), to tackle global warming. As this conference will be hosted by Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has been a strong supporter of more stringent solutions to the climate crisis, including a billionaire tax, the next climate COP could be the catalyst for more tangible change. Also, some finance executives that were not in attendance this year have indicated that they will be attending COP30. This has increased hopes and expectations that discussions at COP30 will be more productive and less of a Cannes-style media event as a result.  

Footnotes

¹https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/what-is-the-united-nations-framework-convention-on-climate-change

²https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement

³https://www.ft.com/content/f88b53be-0a2a-4dbe-a4a8-f8870ba928a7

⁴https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-have-sent-the-most-delegates-to-cop29/#:~:text=A%20total%20of%2054%2C148%20people,30%2C000%20fewer%20participants%20than%20COP28.

⁵https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-have-sent-the-most-delegates-to-cop29/#:~:text=A%20total%20of%2054%2C148%20people,30%2C000%20fewer%20participants%20than%20COP28. 

⁶https://www.ft.com/content/f88b53be-0a2a-4dbe-a4a8-f8870ba928a7

⁷How to Attend the Cannes Film Festival

⁸Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP29? - Carbon Brief

⁹Did people have to fly to COP29? Private jet use soared, but one group got to Baku overland | Euronews

¹⁰https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/11/15/did-people-have-to-fly-to-cop29-private-jet-use-soared-but-one-group-got-to-baku-overland

¹¹https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/13/climate/cop-climate-summit-attendance.html

¹²https://www.ft.com/content/f88b53be-0a2a-4dbe-a4a8-f8870ba928a7

¹³https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop29

¹⁴COP29: Key outcomes agreed at the UN climate talks in Baku - Carbon Brief

¹⁵Over 1,700 coal, oil and gas lobbyists granted access to Cop29, says report | Cop29 | The Guardian

¹⁶COP29: Oil and gas 'gift of god', says host Azerbaijan president - BBC News