This year, the number of delegates from African countries is smaller compared to the last COP in Dubai.
However, Nigeria once again leads the continent in provisional delegate numbers for COP29 in Baku, despite a decrease of 777 delegates.
Nigeria ranks 8th overall, positioned below Azerbaijan, Brazil, Turkey, the UAE, China, Russia, and Indonesia.
The West African country has 634 delegates registered so far, with 214 as party delegates and 420 as overflow.
At COP28 in Dubai, Nigeria had the largest African delegation, sending a total of 1,411 delegates—590 party delegates and 821 overflow delegates.
Uganda sent the second-largest delegation with 412 delegates, including 251 party delegates and 161 overflows, taking Morocco’s position at COP28.
However, the East African country, which ranked sixth at COP28, sent a larger delegation of 606 delegates to this year’s event.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and the United Republic of Tanzania ranked third, fourth, and fifth, with 401, 387, and 353 delegates, respectively.
The Democratic Republic of Congo replaced Kenya’s position, Chad took Tanzania’s place, and the United Republic of Tanzania overtook Ghana’s position from COP28.
Ghana registered 343 delegates this year, a decrease of 275 from last year’s 618, which led to a drop from fifth to sixth position in delegate numbers.
However, the country still ranks 23rd overall, placing ahead of nations like Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
Morocco, Somalia, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Egypt, Benin, and Madagascar ranked seventh to sixteenth, with 335, 328, 298, 291, 288, 282, 273, 238, 233, and 227 delegates, respectively.
Azerbaijan leads overall delegations with 2,229 Registrants
COP29 host Azerbaijan has the largest delegation at the summit, with 2,229 people registered. Brazil follows with the second-largest delegation (1,914), and Turkey comes in third with 1,862 delegates.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), host of COP28 in Dubai, has the fourth-largest delegation with 1,011 delegates, while China ranks fifth with 969.
China’s delegation is smaller compared to COP28, where it had 1,296 delegates.
However, both COP28 and COP29 mark a significant increase in China’s presence, as the country typically averaged around 100 named participants in the previous 10 COPs.
Over 66,000 delegates have registered for the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, making it potentially the second-largest COP in history.
However, this figure is more than 15,000 lower than the record-breaking COP in Dubai last year, marking the first time in seven years that a COP has not surpassed its predecessor in size.
COP28 in Dubai remains the largest COP in nearly 30 years of summit history, with over 83,000 attendees, far surpassing the previous record of around 50,000 set in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the year before.
For COP29 in Baku, the total number of registered delegates stands at 66,778, placing it between the totals of the last two COPs. Including 3,975 virtual participants, the provisional delegate total for COP29 exceeds 70,000.
The UNFCCC will release the final delegate numbers, based on participants who collect a physical badge at the venue, once the summit ends.