COP explained: Blue Zone versus Green Zone and my advice for COP29 delegates

I had never been to a COP before (nor to Dubai, for that matter), so thought I would share some reflections and potentially help those attending a COP for the first time this year [at COP29 in Azerbaijan] learn more about what to expect.

Firstly there is not a single COP event, but at least three running in parallel.  The key event is the international negotiations – the real Conference  of the Parties, which often takes place behind closed doors, but one to which the vast majority of the estimated 60,000 delegates last year had no access.  So, despite being an official UK “party overflow” with Blue Zone access, I was not a contributor to the negotiations.

The Blue Zone

The Blue Zone is where much of the informal networking happens.  Each country has a national “pavilion”.  In Dubai they were typically a couple of rooms on the ground floor of an office building on the site of Expo 2020 – it’s likely that a similar format will be used in Azerbaijan for COP29.  Each country then runs a series of side events, typically with 3 or 4 speakers on a panel, showcasing some of the work being done from that country or suggesting it as a place to invest in climate-related projects, but also often including third country experts as part of the process of knowledge sharing.

I was at COP28 as a guest of the Korea National Cleaner Production Center and Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH).  We had a fascinating round table on international alliances in carbon footprinting and carbon neutrality, with participants also coming from as far away as Italy, New Zealand and California.  As with many such sessions its value will become clear in the future, avoiding duplicated effort and sharing best practice.

In addition to the national pavilions, other bodies can have pavilions, such as multilateral agencies, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This means that at any given time there are probably over 100 events running in parallel.  Finding them is both easy and impossible.  By wandering into almost any pavilion you might happen upon an interesting discussion, but with no centralised programme, it’s largely pot luck and word of mouth – which means there’s a real danger than half the people in the audience – which may vary from about 10 to 50 people – will be your friends and colleagues anyway.  It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the side events, and if you go to too many, I am sure they would merge into a featureless mush of content, which is a shame, as individually there are some great discussions.

The Blue Zone also hosts selected NGOs.  In Dubai these were located on a street of what I can only describe as beach huts, typically holding three or four NGOs, and usually with young, enthusiastic staff.  But the staffers also want to explore the zone, so are very often not there.

The Green Zone

In addition to the Blue Zone, each COP has a Green Zone, with a less restrictive admission policy – in Dubai, after the first few days anyone could pay to enter.  This gave it the feeling of a trade fair, with the Energy Transition building occupied solely by large corporate stands promoting local utilities and banks, and an innovation hub that was about as innovative as the Ideal Home Exhibition, dominated by EV car manufacturers.  I was in the Green Zone during the initial period when only Blue Zone passholders (and a few others who were able to blag their way in) were permitted.  As a result it felt quite sterile, with none of the buzz of the Blue Zone, but it is hard to imagine that the more corporate stands would fire up much enthusiasm for meaningful change among visitors.  Of course, this may have been due to the UAE being a major energy producer – but so is Azerbaijan.

Advice for COP29 delegates

Finding you way around the COP can be tricky at first, but you soon get a mental map of the layout.  In Dubai there were also the permanent Expo 2020 restaurants, and a few pop-up locations serving coffees, ices or vegetarian food, easily spotted by the long queues.  Indeed queuing is commonplace – it took an hour and a half to get my entry visa converted into a photo pass on arrival, and I was a lucky one!  An insider’s tip for finding a coffee is to turn up towards the end of a side event in a friendly pavilion, and you’ll usually be offered one afterwards, occasionally with an indifferent pastry.

The COP is a good place to meet people, old and new.  As everyone has a badge hanging round their neck, it can help break the ice.  However don’t expect to see many world leaders; they are locked away behind closed doors with their security detail, although many will make a brief stop at their national pavilions – I was almost run over by a buggy carrying the President of Ghana.  I also found that although there were many thousands of business and industry executives accredited, I mainly saw people from NGOs and national overflow delegates.  This must partly be linked to where I went, but suggests that there is less mixing between types of attendee than between countries.  So I spoke to several Indian and Brazilian NGOs, but to no British or American corporate attendees.  This can be both a strength and weakness of the event – there is a real danger that we are speaking to our own echo chamber.  Had I been in Dubai longer I should have made a more conscious effort to network outside like-minded colleagues, to engage with more diverse views.

To sum up, it was certainly an interesting experience, and one that I may repeat at Azerbaijan, if I can secure a couple of speaking slots.  Did it justify the cost and carbon footprint of flying 3,553 miles each way?  Quite probably not, even if the reflected glamour of the event made it feel a worthwhile use of my time.  My advice would be not to over-plan your visit, as this could mean trawling across 193 different countries’ websites, but to allow for a degree of serendipity – you never know quite who you may meet there.

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