Six Emory students traveled to Baku, Azerbaijan, in November to observe high-level global negotiations at the 2024 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as Conference of the Parties, or COP.
As part of a study abroad class called UN Climate Change Conference, this was the eighth Emory cohort to attend COP (or COP29, denoting its 29th year) as official observers since 2015. The applications-based course is open to undergraduate and graduate students alike.
This year’s cohort included undergraduates Grace Chou, Aidan Conley, Sarah Orozco and Catherine Wang and master’s candidates Dana Kahn and Willow Rudden. Eri Saikawa, professor of environmental sciences and director of Emory Climate Talks, serves as the course’s faculty advisor.
“COP is a great place to see stakeholders from all over the world and the power dynamics between the Global North and the Global South,” Saikawa says. “By meeting different youth and various climate leaders, it is my hope that students find many inspirations and renew their passion to continue their fight against climate change in their own ways.”
Climate stories across the world
The Emory COP29 cohort sat in on discussions held by world leaders on topics such as adherence to the Paris Climate Agreement and how much money is owed to developing nations to support climate finance.
Chou, an anthropology major, most appreciated the panels, tables and meetings set beyond the negotiation room and the connections they inspired. For example, the Emory delegation held an exhibition booth in partnership with the University of Melbourne and Morrocco’s Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection that detailed the climate efforts of their respective campuses and organizations.
As part of its collaborative exhibition booth, the Emory cohort shared current climate efforts on campus.
Each participant shared their own climate story, including Chou, who is from Cochabamba, Bolivia, in the Andes Mountains.
In 2018, when Chou was in high school, Bolivia experienced a substantial change in weather patterns. A longtime drought ended with days of torrential rainfall, which led to significant mudslides.
“A lot of people were trapped under the mud,” Chou says. “The property damage was astounding. There was so much loss, and because the city and the country did not have the resources to put out rescue efforts to the extent that they were needed, they ended up calling a lot of high school students to go and try to dig people and things out from under the mud. And so that’s what I did.”
This formative experience — out in the mountains with classmates, helping others in the muddy aftermath of a devastating storm — set her on the path to climate action.
“That was my first time being face-to-face with the really deadly impact of what climate change can entail, but also what it takes to try to adapt to it,” Chou says. “You know, you can have 14-year-olds trying to dig people out from under the mud.”
Kahn also shared her climate story as part of the COP29 side event.
Her master’s thesis explores how soil science and geospatial techniques in a Maine forest can deepen our understanding of methane cycle processes. She’s also interested in creative expression that extends the science beyond labs, fields and textbooks.
Kahn writes and performs her own environmental advocacy music.
“I’m a multi-instrumentalist, so I play guitar, percussion, bass and I sing,” she says. “I produce the songs. They’re a mixture of pop, rock, folk and jazz. The songs are based on my experiences in research and hearing justice perspectives from people and telling their stories through my music.”
“It gives people a different idea of how we can talk about climate change and make it more accessible to [everybody],” Kahn adds.
Lessons from overseas — and the negotiating table
The UN negotiation room featured complex climate and policy discussions that left Emory students with much to consider about their own climate stories and how they will respond in the years ahead.
Orozco, a senior studying environmental sciences and environmental health, was struck by how difficult it can be to move global action forward but was still encouraged by the scope and scale of the discussions.
“I saw firsthand how climate [discourse] has risen to the international stage and has become another facet of international relations,” Orozco says. “In that sense it was comforting to see it legitimized and all these people working on it. On the other hand, I saw how slow and contentious the negotiation and agreement process can be.”
Orozco says she was “inspired by the many scales of action that can take place. And I learned the breadth of climate action, from mitigation to adaptation to finance. That gave me more of an understanding of the paths forward, and it pushed me to make sure that I’m an active part of it.”
The trip also inspired reflection from Conley who, as a conscientious environmental sciences and economics major, looked around the high-stakes conference goings-on and asked himself: “Why is it worth emitting so much [in travel emissions] to go to this conference as students?”
His answer: “I think of ourselves as people who will hopefully one day be in important positions, where the actions that we take and the decisions that we make really matter.”
Part of the value of attending COP, he says, is grappling with big picture questions.
Chou says it’s easy to see the immensity of discussions held by world leaders and feel how difficult it is to make an impact on a local level. But the perspectives of everyday people invested in climate change can offer meaningful steps forward, she adds.
“Those voices matter,” Chou says. “Going to this conference made me realize that it’s important to continue speaking up, continue uplifting other voices and to continue caring and engaging other people to care.”
Conley, too, was impressed by the number of voices and the chance to make connections.
“I think COP really gave an incredible opportunity to source so many perspectives from around the world that you really couldn’t [get] elsewhere,” he says. “It’s almost like a speedrun of meeting people from dozens of countries in a matter of a week with the focus on climate change. I think that’s kind of irreplaceable.”