The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth is proud to partner with UChicago Career Advancement to sponsor a delegation of College, Booth, Harris, Law and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering students to attend the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). By attending COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, students will have the opportunity to learn from and network with leaders in government, industry and NGOs.
Below are their on-the-ground daily diaries from COP29.
Day 1 – November 18, 2024
By: Chenwei Hu
By: Eric Fang
My name is Eric Fang, and I am a fourth year student in the college double majoring in business economics and public policy with a specialization in energy. It was incredible to see the coalition of nonprofits, businesses, and governments all working towards the common goal of improving the climate at the COP29 Green Zone. Of particular interest to me was a panel hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the circulatory economy. During this talk, I was fascinated about the ways in which these different groups advocated for policies that incentives recycling, whether it be the recycling of batteries, plastics, or aluminum.
By: Elijah Jenkins
Day 2 – November 19, 2024
By: Sian McAllister
My name is Sian McAllister and I am majoring in Economics and Environmental History. I am mainly interested in environmental economics, especially questions on how we adapt or change our economic systems and behaviors to meet the climate challenge. The panel by the Ministry of Climate and Environment, Republic of Poland, on mobilizing private sector investment, deliberated over some of these questions today. Representatives from Poland, Ukraine, and Peru discussed how to fund resilience infrastructure and mitigation vs adaptation. They also spoke about EU carbon border adjustment, which some of us learned about in detail yesterday at the panel by Resources for the Future and the EU DG Taxation and Customs Union. UChicago students asked some of the most interesting questions at the event – on the changing job market, managing priorities, degrowth, and the role of technology. I also enjoyed meeting the US ambassador to Azerbaijan, and learned a lot about Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia, the peacemaking process, and what transition looks like for a petrostate. Outside of COP, I’ve been exploring Baku Old Town, admiring the Shirvanshah architecture and many COP installations, such as the sperm whale statue on the shore of the Caspian Sea.
By: Amy Ma
By: Elena Tiedens
My name is Elena Tiedens, and I am a fourth year in the College studying history with a concentration in environmental history. I want to thank Yasmin Ali (College ‘26) for her work organizing the speaker session and Q&A with the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mark Libby. It was invaluable to understand COP29 within the broader politics of this region, and to reconceptualize COP29 as not only a climate conference, but the product of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and negotiations over the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. This conversation was a good reminder that climate action never occurs outside of specific cultural, political, and historical contexts. Along similar lines, I have been lucky to explore Baku – a city rich with the reminders of many times from its Persian and Turkic past, to the Soviet Union, and the industrialized present.
Day 3 – November 20, 2024
By: Eugene McCarty
My name is Eugene McCarty, and I am a third-year Molecular Engineering and Economics double major in the College. I really enjoyed the talks with specific policy makers and negotiators, especially the individual ambassadors and the group of US negotiators that we set up. Being able to see and meet representatives from countries all around the world, even ones that aren’t as much of a large presence on the global political stage, is my favorite part of COP29 because it is extremely inspiring witnessing people from the most diverse backgrounds possible all agree on a common point of interest: climate change. The fact that global collaboration exists to this degree raises a lot of climate optimism for me, which is a point of view I’ve always found difficult to hold regarding climate change.
By: Paul Salach
By: Genevieve Ansay
My name is Genevieve Ansay, and I am a 4th year undergraduate molecular engineering major currently applying to PhD programs in Chemical Engineering. My favorite panel today, which also happens to be my top pick at the conference so far, was called “Mitigating methane from waste in the Global South–Pathways to COP30 in Belém,” though we strayed from methane-specific waste. Led by several panelists from the International Solid Waste Association, but also including voices from the Global Methane Hub, the Clean Air Task Force, and the company Kanadevia Inova, the panel featured debate about the merits of burning waste for energy and the necessities of sorting waste, as well as discussion about the differences in waste management and its contexts in India, Brazil, and Western Europe. Since the audience was small, we arranged ourselves in a circle for Q&A, eventually morphing into a discussion which ran much longer than the panel was supposed to. I left the conversation with three key takeaways:
- Waste management requires a privileged enough populace that people are willing and able to follow regulations and pay fees.
- While we may strive to reach a zero waste, circular economy, this is a goal to strive for, not something that may be wholly practical or possible.
- Bringing a new technology from academic research to industry requires first funding for the pilot, and then, if the pilot is successful, legislation or other factors to create a market for the technology.
Day 4 – November 21, 2024
By: Emmanuel Mayani
My name is Stephanie Shekels, and I’m a second year Master of Public Policy student. I am grateful to my fellow delegates who connected our team to Ambassador Libby and Ambassador Hamidullah. It was interesting to hear the ambassadors discuss the politics of climate change. Many of our conversations centered on the importance of making stories and realities known and understandable—and the moral questions surrounding a changing environment. There was a parallel theme in the green zone that science not political science must be underlying public policy. There is, however, still a lot of work to be done around building consensus, understanding the distribution of environmental impacts and resource networks, and generating action. That said, overall it was inspiring to be in a space where so many people came together to discuss climate and the environment.
By: Sam Marsden