As a UNFCCC-accredited civil society organization, Climate Generation receives observer badges and has sent delegations since 2009 consisting at various times of teachers, youth/students, activists, storytellers, artists, scientists, community organizers, business leaders, policymakers, and elected officials from Minnesota.

We are excited to send another Minnesota-based, multi-racial, intergenerational delegation to participate and report back from COP29. We are also excited to partner again with the Entertainment + Culture Pavilion with the goal of nurturing and fostering community building for the creative sector at COP29 alongside climate policy experts, frontline activists, and government officials.

The 29th Conference of the Parties (COP: a conference hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC) is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan this November 11, 2024 to November 22, 2023. COP is an annual gathering of 197 nations negotiating climate policy worldwide in an attempt to address the climate crisis. These gatherings began after the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Climate in 1992, with the first COP held in Berlin in 1995. They have continued annually since then.

Each of the 197 nations, also known as “parties”, brings a delegation of official negotiators. In addition to negotiators, “civil society” can participate as observers from accredited organizations. Those with ‘observer delegate’ status, are able to stand in unity with those whose voices are too often silenced–chiefly frontline communities that are experiencing loss of place and community, death, adverse health impacts, and loss of their chief economies for survival due to the climate crisis. In the past three to four years, the presence of frontline communities (Indigenous people from the global south, students and activists on a global scale and youth) has increased, adding their voices to the negotiations through reporting, storytelling, art, and participation in the negotiations where allowed.

COPS AND CLIMATE GENERATION
Climate Generation has a history of sending delegations to COPs, including COP15, COP21, COP22, COP23, COP24, COP25, COP26, COP27, COP28, and COP29. Climate Generation is a member of the U.S. ACE Coalition and Climate Action Network (CAN) International.