Where the negotiations fell short, where momentum surged, and what still feels possible. That’s a wrap for COP30. After taking a week to reflect, process, and make sense of everything I learned, saw, and experienced, I am still trying to find the right words. COP30 was a tumultuous summit—from the fire to the protests to …
Continue reading “COP30: Final Outcomes, Reflections, and Ruminations”
A view from the newly constructed “Nova Doca” that runs through the city into the Guamá River Introduction As a senior at Colorado College with an Independently Designed Major in Ecological Urban Studies, I am forming my thesis research around the intersectionality of third-places (places distinct from home and school/work) and urban ecology. I view …
By Marissa Banuelos On Tuesday November 18th, the Executive Secretary Townhall Meeting with Observer Organizations, the civil-society component of UNFCCC, was held. These town hall meetings are a place where observers can ask questions about negotiations, make suggestions, and comment on the process to Executive Secretary Simon Stiel himself. Constituencies are bodies of observer-organizations with …
Continue reading “Militarization and Confrontation at COP30”
What are over 50,000 people from all over the world doing everyday, all day, for two weeks? Where do they go? How do you enter the venue at 8:00am only to find yourself leaving twelve hours later? Overhead look at the COP30 conference campus, courtesy of UNFCCC First, there are 2 Zones to the COP: …
Continue reading “What are the elements of a COP conference?”
By Marissa Banuelos and Havalin Haskell In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) declared its mission. “The ultimate objective of this Convention and any related legal instruments that the Conference of the Parties may adopt is to achieve, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas …
Join the Colorado College Delegation again for a front-row seat to the UN Climate Summit at the “gateway to the Amazon.”
By Ella Reese-Clauson ’26, International Political Economy | In this longer essay-format post, follow along on the path of my hope at COP29, starting first with some of the more encouraging sessions I went to before digging into the fissures that made that faith vanish. I will bring the reader with me as I witness firsthand some of the conference’s many failures but also highlight a few successes that leave me feeling a sense of faith, no longer in the UNFCCC and its institutions but in the people that make COPs run.
By Jamie Harvie, ’25, Anthropology Major It was on Day 5 of COP29 that I began taking solitary walks around the city of Baku. I had been badged the Days 1-3, running around the stadium trying to attend as many events as possible, absorbing as much information as possible, and passing out from exhaustion before …
By Jamie Harvie, ’25, Anthropology Each year, the UNFCCC’s Conference of Parties (COP) accrues an international assemblage of world leaders and students, activists and NGOs, government officials and economists, and everyone in between. During this two-week event, these individuals and delegations – all with varying levels of power, capital, and social capital – become actors …
By Jessica Legaard, ‘25, Environmental Studies From the minute we landed, Baku’s distinct aesthetic was striking. Bright, oversized screens at Heydar Aliyev International Airport welcomed us with advertisements for COP29, paired with stunning images of natural landscapes—most of whose exact location is still a mystery to me. Despite the late hour, there was energy in …
