CC Delegation to COP29 Reflects Almost a Year Later
At Colorado College, students learn through real-world immersion and actions. Eight student delegates might know that better than anyone, after CC sent a student delegation to the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29). And now, almost a year after the conference, CC’s delegation is reflecting on the experience.
CC joins several other institutions of higher education in sending regular student delegations to The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP), which is an annual meeting where the European Union and 197 country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meet to discuss the climate crisis.
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Looking back on this experience the lessons I learned at COP still hold true. If anything, more time away has allowed me more clarity on what the lasting impact of such an experience can be. I left COP29 believing the places I can make lasting change are at the local level and through law.
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CC’s delegation to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, was led by Dr. Sarah Hautzinger, Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies, and Myra Jackson, Mindfulness Fellow for Creativity and Innovation.
Havalin Haskell ’26 and Jamie Harvie ’25 were panelists for YEAH's side event: Youth Capacity-Building at COP29: Mobilizing Intergenerational Partnerships through Higher Education, which focused on youth leadership in climate negotiations and actions, during COP29 in November 2024. Dr. Sarah Hautzinger was a moderator for the panel, which took place on Nov. 19, following Youth Day on Nov. 18, 2024
Havalin Haskell ’26 and Jamie Harvie ’25 were panelists for YEAH's side event: Youth Capacity-Building at COP29: Mobilizing Intergenerational Partnerships through Higher Education, which focused on youth leadership in climate negotiations and actions, during COP29 in November 2024. Dr. Sarah Hautzinger was a moderator for the panel, which took place on Nov. 19, following Youth Day on Nov. 18, 2024
Some of the CC delegates at a dinner in Baku during COP29.
Some of the CC delegates at a dinner in Baku during COP29.
Hautzinger and Jackson are pictured with Megan O'Brien '25, Ashley Entwistle '26, Ella Reese-Clauson '26, Isabella Childs Michael '25, Jessica Legaard '25, Havalin Haskell ’26, and Jamie Harvie ’25, after receiving their official badges at the COP29 venue.
Hautzinger and Jackson are pictured with Megan O'Brien '25, Ashley Entwistle '26, Ella Reese-Clauson '26, Isabella Childs Michael '25, Jessica Legaard '25, Havalin Haskell ’26, and Jamie Harvie ’25, after receiving their official badges at the COP29 venue.
Jessica Legaard '25, Isabella Childs Michael '25, and Havalin Haskell ’26 outside the green zone at COP29 in November 2024.
Jessica Legaard '25, Isabella Childs Michael '25, and Havalin Haskell ’26 outside the green zone at COP29 in November 2024.
After returning from COP29, CC’s eight student delegates were feeling inspired and hopeful. Now, they are using their experiences to create change.
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COP29 flooded my mind with the multitude of ways one can participate in climate action. Leaving Baku, I did not picture myself in a negotiation room. Instead, I felt compelled to do hands-on, small-scale work in communities I care about.
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Childs Michael now works in land stewardship at a land trust in her home state of Maine.
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As I care for ecologically diverse properties that cannot be developed on and maintain trails that keep people connected to outdoor spaces, COP29 reminds me that my work is one piece in a much larger system of climate work.
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Jessica Legaard ’25 says she’s realized how much COP29 reshaped the way she thinks about climate action and her place within it.
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Before Baku, many of my Environmental Studies courses had introduced me to the tight link between climate change and social inequities globally. At COP, that connection became abundantly clear as I witnessed how countries outside the U.S. are facing some of the worst climate impacts, often compounded by inequities perpetuated by larger systems of power. This realization has directly influenced the path I want to pursue. Working in political campaigns and state government is a way of advancing not only climate justice but also social justice. To me, these cannot be separated, and COP reinforced how essential it is to bring many perspectives into the larger conversation.
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When I first approached the conference, I wasn’t sure what niche within the environmental movement I fit into, or what my contribution could look like. But I left with a clearer sense: that hope, empowerment, and change often take root locally, within our own communities, especially in the wake of federal anti-environmentalism during the Trump Administration.
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Haskell maintained an Instagram account and newsletter while at COP29. Since returning from Baku, Haskell has led strategic communications for a budding nonprofit protecting the headwaters of her small town in Colorado and worked as a news intern for Colorado Public Radio/KRCC, where she wrote several climate-focused pieces. She will attend COP30 this November.
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Through these opportunities, I experienced firsthand the importance of climate communication and intergenerational partnership, values I first glimpsed at COP29 through the mentorship of my supervisors.
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Ashley Entwistle ’26 met someone at COP29 who inspired her to pursue a summer internship at the Arctic Centre, an interdisciplinary research hub located in Lapland, Finland. Entwistle spent this past summer looking at the intersection between great power competition in the Arctic and global environmental policy, which was a topic she followed closely through her independent research at COP29.
The 2025 United Nation Climate Change Conference (COP30) will take place in Belém, Brazil, Nov. 10-21, 2025. Although the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will not formally take effect until 2026, the federal government declined to participate in the June pre-COP meetings in Bonn and will not send an official delegation to COP30 in Brazil. Thus, the U.S. will only be represented through civil society “observer” organizations such as Colorado College, along with climate coalitions, governors, and mayors who are engaged in global climate efforts.
Hautzinger is taking three independent research students to COP30 this year, all of whom are linking COP30 to their thesis work. These students are Haskell, Noah Furuseth ’26, and Riss Banuelos ’26, who attended COP28 in person as part of CC’s delegation and was virtually badged during COP29.
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