Nigeria’s COP delegation drops by 55% — but still Africa’s largest

Nigeria’s delegation at the ongoing COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, is the largest in Africa despite having a significant reduction from the figure that attended the 2023 edition.

In 2023, there was a public outcry against the country’s 1,411 delegation to COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), with many describing it as a “waste of government resources”.

Although the federal government denied taking 1,411 delegates to the conference, President Bola Tinubu assured that the budget for the upcoming climate event would be cut down, noting that “there were government officials who had no business at that meeting”.

However, according to a list published on Tuesday by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), Nigeria has the ninth highest registered delegates at the conference.

The interim total attendance for COP29 shows that 66,778 delegates have registered to attend in person, with approximately 3,975 attending virtually, bringing the figure to 70,753.

The attendance figure represents a decline of 15,000 delegates (55.1%) from the record-breaking COP28 in Dubai and marks the first time in seven years that a COP has not surpassed the previous year’s conference in size, according to a report by Carbon Brief.

The host country, Azerbaijan, has the largest delegation with 2,229 attendees, followed by Brazil with 1,914 and Turkey with 1,862, ranking second and third, respectively.

An analysis by TheCable shows that Nigeria ranks ninth overall with 634 delegates and has the largest delegation from Africa, followed by Uganda with 412 delegates.

While the exact reasons for the significant decline in COP29 attendance remain uncertain, several factors—such as inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, and growing climate denial—are likely contributing to the reduced participation by many countries.