Well, it’s that time of year again. I get the feeling that most sceptics are finding it difficult to maintain an angry face by now; the COPs have gone on so long, that they have long since ceased to be a source of outrage. Now they are so ridiculous as to be self-parodies, save that the ant-like delegates don’t see the joke.

A few years ago, I compiled a list of the number of attendees at each of the COPs; I failed to locate numbers for two of the early shindigs, Geneva and Bonn. I updated it after Glasgow and Sharm El-Sheikh, but had lost all enthusiasm by Dubai.

Today (it was yesterday…) I idly wondered whether the rest of the world shared my ennui. Had the number of delegates finally begun to drop off?

I was rather surprised to find that – almost impossibly – COP28 managed to assemble almost 100,000 participants. (Actually, 97,372 according to the UNFCCC; another 3,000 dialled in, so the total was in fact over a tenth of a million. And why was it not the other way: 97,000 virtual attendees, and 3,000 in person?) Quite incredibly, COP28 all but tripled the attendance of COP27 (33,449).

What about this year? The total attendees:

66,778

I won’t ask you to guess how many UK plc sent, because Paul Homewood already drew attention to the number, and I’m sure most readers of Cliscep read Notalot. If you do so, you will know that the UK delegation numbers 470.

Of course, that is a bald number lacking context. The context is that the UK is in 11th place on the delegation size list. Here are the top eleven:

Azerbaijan2,229
Brazil1,914
Türkiye1,862
United Arab Emirates1,011
China969
Russian Federation900
Indonesia810
Nigeria634
Japan595
Kazakhstan478
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland470

The further context is that the delegates come from a range of departments and organisations, foreign countries, business outfits and media. Here is a list of all organisations with at least three representatives:

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero115
FCDO51
No1033
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office28
UK Government15
Sky News11
Department for Business and Trade10
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs8
National Grid8
SSE Plc8
Standard Chartered7
British Council6
International Climate Change6
Met Police6
University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership6
AVEVA5
DP World5
HM Treasury5
Cabinet Office4
Climate Change Committee4
Government Legal Department4
Octopus Energy4
UK Export Finance4
BBC News3
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs3
Department for Health and Social Care3
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology3
DfT3
ITV News3
UK Parliament3
UK Space Agency3
We Are Family Foundation3

Some items appear more than once owing to nuance in spelling or abbreviations. One of our representatives put themselves down as a member of “Foreign, Commenwalth and Development Office” [sic]. Just the sort of representative we need.

Why are we sending representatives from DP World? [= Dubai Ports World, famed for running ports, and for firing 800 P&O ferry staff.] Or Octopus Energy? The 11 from Sky are presumably making a documentary about Chairman Starmer. Further down the list (not shown) are representatives of Anguilla, Montserrat, and others.

Other countries’ numbers tot up to 32,688. Almost as many, you’ll note, as the total attendance at COP27.

1,128 folks from the UN turned out, representing 41 different offices:

Department of Peace Operations11
Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs15
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific16
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia4
Economic Commission for Africa134
Economic Commission for Europe29
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean2
Executive Office of the Secretary-General28
International Trade Centre22
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs10
Office of Legal Affairs1
Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States2
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights26
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees23
Ozone Secretariat7
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity4
Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification3
The Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund20
United Nations Capital Development Fund15
United Nations Children’s Fund100
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development92
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs21
United Nations Department of Global Communications14
United Nations Development Coordination Office26
United Nations Development Programme83
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women69
United Nations Environment Programme49
United Nations General Assembly4
United Nations Human Settlements Programme39
United Nations Institute for Training and Research24
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction17
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs2
United Nations Office for Project Services99
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime7
United Nations Population Fund34
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development1
United Nations University49
United Nations Volunteers1
United Nations Youth Office2
Universal Postal Union5
World Food Programme18

I didn’t know the UN had an Office for Outer Space Affairs. Is this someone’s idea of a joke, or is this the organisation that will eventually evolve into Starfleet?

There are 1,047 representatives from 23 international agencies, some of them excrudescences of the UN:

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations47
Global Environment Facility21
Green Climate Fund36
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO10
International Atomic Energy Agency47
International Civil Aviation Organization8
International Fund for Agricultural Development27
International Labour Organization26
International Maritime Organization6
International Monetary Fund29
International Organization for Migration84
International Telecommunication Union47
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS2
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization17
United Nations Global Compact25
United Nations Industrial Development Organization183
WMO/UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change31
World Bank Group260
World Health Organization59
World Intellectual Property Organization10
World Meteorological Organization34
World Tourism Organization24
World Trade Organization14

There are 1,029 representatives of 111 inter-governmental organisations (the interpreter having replaced some characters with ?):

Adaptation Fund Board16
African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development9
African Development Bank Group26
African Union Commission29
ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity6
Asian Development Bank39
Asian Disaster Preparedness Center4
Asian Forest Cooperation Organization4
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank26
Banco Centroamericano de Integraci?n Econ?mica4
Black Sea Trade and Development Bank5
CAB International6
Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre14
Caribbean Community Secretariat4
Caribbean Development Bank6
Caribbean Export Development Agency3
Center for International Forestry Research8
Centre for Environment & Development for Arab Region & Europe5
Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT)3
CGIAR System Organization15
Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure21
Comisión Centroamericana de Ambiente y Desarrollo1
Comité permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel10
Commission de l’ocean Indien4
Commission des Forêts d’Afrique Centrale3
Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South10
Commonwealth Secretariat22
Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat1
Corporación Andina de Fomento7
Council of Europe7
Council of Europe Development Bank3
East African Community7
East Mediterranean Gas Forum3
Economic Community of Central African States5
Economic Community of West African States8
Economic Cooperation Organization4
ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency1
Energy Charter Conference2
Energy Community4
Eurasian Development Bank5
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development35
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts3
European Investment Bank25
European Space Agency7
European University Institute6
Gas Exporting Countries Forum8
Global Crop Diversity Trust6
Global Green Growth Institute7
Global Water Partnership Organisation7
Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration3
IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre13
Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura21
Inter-American Development Bank16
Inter-Parliamentary Union7
International Anti-Corruption Academy1
International Bureau of Weights and Measures4
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas5
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development7
International Centre for Research in Agroforestry7
International Development Law Organization5
International Electrotechnical Commission12
International Energy Agency13
International Energy Forum2
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies20
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance1
International Institute of Refrigeration6
International Livestock Research Institute10
International Network for Bamboo and Rattan6
International Renewable Energy Agency34
International Rice Research Institute10
International Solar Alliance36
International Transport Forum, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development7
International Tropical Timber Organization2
International Union for Conservation of Nature25
International Water Management Institute12
Islamic Development Bank32
ITER International Fusion Energy Organization11
Lake Chad Basin Commission4
League of Arab States16
New Development Bank12
Nordic Council8
Nordic Council of Ministers7
Nordic Development Fund7
Nordic Environment Finance Corporation7
Nordic Investment Bank8
Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel4
OPEC Fund for International Development12
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development12
Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie6
Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States12
Organiza??o do Tratado de Coopera??o Amaz?nica2
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe7
Organization of American States7
Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries2
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries8
Pacific Islands Development Forum6
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat4
Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean7
Permanent Court of Arbitration1
Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention2
Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency10
Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific5
Secretaria Ejecutiva del Consejo Agropecuario Centroamericano5
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme1
Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean30
South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme2
Southern African Development Community4
The Coral Triangle Initiatives on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security1
The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO)8
The Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden3
University for Peace7

No doubt all these folk have good reasons to be at the shindig.

There are so many people from so many NGOs that I can’t show them: almost 10,000, with more than 1,000 organisations sending people. Here are the orgs with 20 or more staff on hand:

International Chamber of Commerce158
ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability89
Climate Action Network International88
Egypt The Dream Foundation for Development and Innovation and Innovation64
International Trade Union Confederation53
Society for Development and Community Empowerment48
WWF48
Abibimman Foundation47
C Team44
International Emissions Trading Association43
African Smart Cities Innovation Foundation37
Sustainable Development Policy Institute35
World Farmers’ Organisation35
African Climate Change Research Centre32
Association Actions Vitales Pour Le Développement Durable32
Greenpeace International32
Habitable Earth International Organisation32
The Northern Forum32
International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges29
India Youth For Society27
International Youth Council – Yemen27
World Business Council for Sustainable Development27
ActionAid International Foundation26
African Belt and Road Development Initiative26
Climate Action Network – Europe25
International Youth Nuclear Congress25
The Volunteer Team Foundation for Humanitarian Action25
Asabe Shehu Yar’adua Foundation24
Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical24
China Association for NGO Cooperation22
Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet, Incorporated22
Sustainable Environment Food and Agriculture Initiative22
Woman, Development, Future Public Union *22
Climate Action Network – Latin America21
Coshare Environment21
Friends of the Earth International21
Washington University21
Association Club Amis de la Planète20
Fundación Red Colombiana Para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, el Medio Ambiente y la Paz20
Indigenous Information Network20
International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests20

Thrush, Hydra and SPECTRE also sent agents. I mean delegates.

The 301 delegates from Global Climate Action get their own tab in the UNFCCC’s PLOP spreadsheet. They include Mr. Albert Gore, whoever he is, one from UEFA, and two from Artistic Milliners. [Yes, really.]

Then we have 294 conference invitees, including two from the Clinton Foundation and 5 from BMW.

There are 1,881 invitees of the host country from nearly 1,000 outfits, including 5 from the Tony Blair Institute, more from the UN, one from the Shaolin Temple, & 4 from Bill & Mel Gates Foundation.

Finally, the media, numbering 3,575, from 1,400 companies. As you might guess, Azerbaijan’s media is the largest group. The BBC has sent a modest 12, at least off their own back (plus 3 hanging onto the UK party’s coat-tails). In these straitened times, the Guardian kept their numbers down to 3, to add to the 1 who came with a UK badge.

Ignoring the 12-ish temporary passes, that’s the whole shebang. 66,778 party-goers.

Oh, minus 85 now that Argentina have gone home.

Our leader submitted the UK’s suicide note at the beginning of the conference. He was captured the same day with an expression that told of second thoughts. Of course, fleeting expressions captured by a fast shutter can be very misleading. No doubt the PM was just listening intently to some important point or other. Perhaps it was someone laughing at him and asking for money, or demanding that he demonstrate climate leadership.

Meanwhile, on this grey Thursday morning, scanning the live streams of COP29 on Youtube, I see a total of about 50 people watching from around the globe across 6 streams. The top audience is for Euronews, with 20. There are streams running with (literally) zero viewers.

Tags: , ,

12 Comments

  1. Hi Jit

    “The BBC has sent a modest 12, at least off their own back (plus 3 hanging onto the UK party’s coat-tails).”

    I apologise for appearing to criticise your sleuthing skills, but the BBC can be pretty adept at muddying waters. Its attendees appear under various ‘Nominations’. 🤣.

    UNFCCC’s “Provisional list of registered participants: on-site participants (Excel file)” https://unfccc.int/documents/643061 lists the following:

    Party Overflow tab:

    Ms. Alexandra Forsyth
    Mr. James McConkey
    Mr. Giles Wooltorton

    Media tab:

    Mr. Jack Burgess
    Mr. Kevin Church
    Ms. Alice Elizabeth Dodson
    Mr. Tomos Gwyndaf Hughes
    Mr. Antony Jolliffe
    Mr. Maarten Lernout
    Mr. Christopher Richard Mason
    Mr. Mark Poynting
    Ms. Georgina Rannard
    Mr. Justin Rowlatt
    Ms. Esme Stallard
    Ms. Miho Tanaka
    Ms. Aygul Abdulkarimova
    Ms. Rayhan Demytrie
    Mr. Farid Hasanov
    Ms. Khanim Javadova
    Ms. Konul Khalilova
    Mr. Matthew McGrath
    Ms. Saadat Mehdiyeva
    Mr. Ilkin Hasanov
    Mr. Peter Musembi
    Mr. Andrew Alcroft
    Mr. Malcolm Senior
    Mr. Jack Slater
    Mr. Mohammad Jalal Miah

    28 in total.

    Like

  4. Greenpeace plays the same split-and-hide numbers game.

    Yes 32 attendees as Greenpeace International, but a total of 45 if its franchisees are counted. 😀

    Like

  5. The PLOP total should be 66,777 (minus the Argentines). Sally Davey, the CEO of Travalyst, Prince Harry’s bafflegab-riddled guilt trip, is listed twice, once with her actual name and once as ‘Sally Jane Davely’.

    Three other people are part of the official Travalyst delegation – its Head of Policy, its Head of Strategy & Impact and its Strategic Partnership Lead – and two of its directors are listed in delegations from other NGOs.

    Travalyst had only six employees in 2022. There are perhaps a few more now, but still… Four employees and two (paid?) directors from a tiny and supposedly green outfit flying all the way to Baku to mainstream key core synergy toolkit verticals going forwards does seem a bit excessive.

    I don’t think Prince Harry is there. He’s probably too busy celebrating his recent inclusion in the 2024 TIME100 Climate List. He’s included because of Travalyst, which, according to Time, he founded after ‘a 7-year-old boy told him that England’s environmental impact was damaging the [Caribbean] coral reefs’. Nope. He founded it after criticism of his frequent use of private jets.

    Like

  6. Absolutely staggering. What a shameless jamboree. Not only do those numbers expose the futility of the attendance of so many of those people, they also expose the rotten heart of the green blob – thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people around the world “working” in organisations that proselytise, carry out studies, run campaigns, lobby, and basically do precious little of any use.

    As I have opined many times before, if you want to reach agreement regarding complex issues, the fewer people you have in the room, the better. The size of these shindigs pretty much guarantees that they will never ever agree anything useful, even in their own terms.

    Liked by 2 people

  8. Superb Jit. As usual you made me laugh out loud.

    I didn’t know anything about this COP so a question. Has Argentina withdrawn all its delegates?

    Javier Milei turning up in Miami to meet Trump and Elon Musk about how to cut a mere two trillion dollars a year from the US government budget (and NGO add-ons, presumably) would cohere with this I guess.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. “Britain Has an Astonishing 470 Delegates at Climate Change Summit”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/11/17/britain-has-an-astonishing-470-delegates-at-climate-change-summit/

    …Official figures obtained by this newspaper reveal the U.K. registered 470 delegates. This compared with the 405 from the US, 111 from India, 437 from Italy 325 from Germany and 115 from France, whose President Emmanuel Macron also spurned the talks.

    With Baku almost 2,500 miles from London, the British delegation is estimated to have collectively racked up 2.3 million air miles for return trips. Each return flight pumps out at least 0.7 tons of CO2 per passenger, making the delegation’s flights’ total carbon footprint at least 338 tons of CO2.

    The U.K.’s delegation included 354 Government officials or ministers. The remaining 116 included representatives from Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, business figures, policy experts and journalists.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. “Government Spaffs Half a Million in Taxpayer Funds on COP29 Hotels”

    https://order-order.com/2024/12/10/government-spaffs-half-a-million-in-taxpayer-funds-on-cop29-hotels/

    …According to official UN figures the UK sent a whopping 448 official delegates to Azerbaijan for the event, which includes “officials and ministers, as well delegates from arm’s length bodies, parliament, devolved administrations, overseas territories, the media, sponsors, and external speakers.” The British delegation also included such important guests as two PHD students and “Youth Delegate”. For reference the United States sent only 383 people…

    Hotels in Baku have been boasting of the bookings bonanza from the event. The Department for Transport complains in its FOI response that “hotel rates across Baku were inflated by as much as 9 x normal pre-COP prices” and “protocol means that delegates must stay in hotels that have passed a security check,” before revealing that the total spent across the four hotels by government departments was a cool £685,000. Plus the old 338-tonne carbon footprint in getting there…

    Delegates stayed in four hotels:

    • Fly Inn.
    • Ibis Baku City.
    • Mercure Baku City.
    • Ramada by Wyndham Baku.

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.