The Conference of Parties (COP) of the climate change agreement is having its 29th meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan. Known more familiarly as COP29, the meeting is a complex maze of issues, past agreements, and possible future agreements involving money, monitoring and management.
Following a COP meeting is a challenge even for people who are well familiar with the process and the agenda. If you want to follow the on-going COP29, and perhaps future COP meetings, here are my three go-to sources on the proceedings.
The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is well known in the sustainability field. I have known and worked with the individuals who created this publication in 1992 in the margins of the inter-governmental negotiations preparing for the UN conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit. ENB covers all types of inter-governmental sustainability meetings, including climate change which is the ultimate sustainability challenge. The publication is read by government delegates, UN staff, NGOs, academics and others wanting to know what happened in a specific meeting. These meetings are complex and even when you are personally involved in them as government delegate or UN staff you cannot be everywhere and reading ENB helps you catch up with your own meeting also.
ENB’s COP29 coverage is here. There is a daily synopsis of what was discussed, summaries of related events held in the margins of the official meeting, and photographs of key individuals involved. At the end of each meeting, there is an overall summary including a brief analysis of the proceedings. One more added benefit of ENB, especially for people who are just entering an inter-governmental negotiation process is the background information. If you are new to climate change COP meetings, you can get a quick orientation to the past sessions. This is very valuable for people who want a quick orientation but don’t have a lot of time looking up the information on the previous 28 years of COP meetings.
Climate Home News is a newer source having been created in 2011. This independent journalist group is based in the UK, and is focused exclusively on covering climate change related meetings, particularly the COP sessions. I like their coverage style and subscribe to their newsletter, which you can also do here.
Third World Network (TWN) is based in Malaysia, founded in 1984. This is not a publication specific to sustainability or climate change. TWN covers all types of issues with a focus on the perspective of the “third world” which is now known as developing countries. TWN was involved in the 1992 Earth Summit and has been part of the sustainability negotiations since then. Their climate change coverage is available online since 2007, and the COP29 coverage is here. I subscribe to their newsletters because it is an alternative perspective that is not easily available in the mainstream media.
Hi, Zehra – I found your website to be a very useful source of information for somebody who is not directly involved in what is happening both at the UN and in parallel meetings on the subject of environmentall sustainability and climate change among the NGOs. I know someone in Brazil who is thinking of taking the issue of the preservation of the Atlantic Tropical Forest and the threatened fauna within. The sources you recommend can help finding different subject presented in COP 29 and will be of great interest to them. Thank you for the important work you are doing.