“Global Change Ecology” at COP 29: Experiences, Outcomes, and Key Takeaways

At­tend­ing COP29 in Baku as ob­serv­ers was a trans­form­ative expe­rience. The con­fer­ence brought to­gether world lead­ers, scien­tists, and activ­ists to nego­tiate cli­mate poli­cy. After wit­ness­ing global coop­era­tion firsthand, we were able to ap­preci­ate both the com­plexi­ty and the im­portance of these dis­cussions. While the nego­ti­ations were often tech­nical and slow-moving, they un­der­scored the chal­lenge of align­ing nearly 200 na­tions with di­verse priori­ties. 

Be­yond the nego­ti­ations, side events pro­vided inval­uable in­sights. From indig­enous lead­ers advo­cating for cli­mate justice to ex­perts dis­cuss­ing car­bon mar­kets, we saw how policy trans­lates into ac­tion. The Peo­ple's Plena­ry, an emo­tional call for stronger cli­mate com­mit­ments, stood out as a pow­erful mo­ment. 

Press con­fer­ences gave us a be­hind-the-scenes look at high-level deci­si­on-mak­ing, while na­tional statements high­light­ed con­trasting strat­egies - some priori­tizing ambi­tious pledges, others focus­ing on realis­tic im­ple­men­tation. It was par­ticu­larly inter­esting to see statements from coun­tries at war read out in prox­imity. The statements were also an op­por­tunity to high­light inno­vative solu­tions or part­ner­ships that indi­vidual coun­tries are pursu­ing. But these statements were not just decla­ra­tions of intent, they set the tone for the nego­ti­ations and influ­enced the over­all direc­tion of COP29. This was clear­ly seen in the finan­cial lan­guage of many of the statements, con­sider­ing this year’s COP being dubbed the "Fi­nance COP." 

Over­all, COP29 re­in­forced our ap­preci­ation for the pro­cesses that lead to global cli­mate ac­tion. Our results come from think­ing about how we can pro­vide solu­tions in our local spheres, com­ple­ment­ing them with what we've learned in the Elite Grad­uate Pro­gram “Global Change Ecol­ogy”.

Over­all, we thor­ough­ly en­joyed our expe­rience at COP29 in Baku. It was deep­ly inspir­ing to see so many peo­ple, politi­cians, dele­gates, activ­ists, vul­nerable peo­ple and ob­serv­ers alike, come to­gether to fight for a more sus­taina­ble fu­ture, de­spite all the out­ward dif­fer­ences. Our time there gave us a new­found re­spect for peo­ple who work tire­lessly to nego­tiate agreements that eve­ryone can live with. The achievement of a suc­cess­ful agreement at the end of the con­fer­ence is easy to over­look when fol­low­ing the con­fer­ence in the news. We take this inspi­ration and mo­men­tum back to Bay­reuth to work for a better fu­ture.   

Text: Anna Walther, Hannah Hünig, Elite Graduate Program “Global Change Ecology”