The Federal Government has incurred N866 million in flight costs for its delegation to the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, BusinessDay?s findings have revealed.

In 2023, President Bola Tinubu participated in COP 28 in Dubai with 1,411 delegates, making him the leader in Africa with the highest entourage and the third largest representation among global countries attending the conference.

This year, Nigeria?s delegation to the ongoing COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, reduced by 55 percent to 634 delegates but it still retains Africa?s highest delegation title. Uganda has the second-highest delegation with 412 delegates.

Of the 634 delegates, 214 were sponsored to attend the conference by the Nigerian government.

The return flight tickets for the 214 delegates for COP 29 is estimated at N866 million, indicating a 1.59 percent decline from last year?s cost of N880m for COP28.

BusinessDay arrived at the cost using flight rates from international airline operators. According to sources within the aviation industry, the federal government rarely charters local carriers for international conferences.

Instead, it opts for international airlines, paying them in foreign currency for charter services, even though local operators have the necessary approvals to fly directly to some of the destinations.

The President often uses one of the 10 presidential planes, while the rest of the delegation charter an international flight. The maintenance costs for each presidential aircraft increased by 99.6 percent, reaching N7.297 billion in 2019.

A check on the average international flight operator showed that a two-way flight ticket from Nigeria to Baku costs N4.1 million.

Data sourced by BusinessDay showed the estacode or daily allowance each traveller receives is based on their position.

Ministers receive $900 per day, totalling $11,700 for the 13-day conference. Permanent secretaries are allocated $600 per day, amounting to $7,800 for the same period.

Finally, officers on levels 1-6 receive $206 daily, totalling $2,678 for the entire conference duration.

Overall, the interim attendance figures for COP29 reveal that 66,778 delegates are attending in person, with about 3,975 participating virtually, totalling 70,753.

As is common at COP summits, the largest delegation at COP29 represents the host country. Azerbaijan has registered a delegation ? including party overflow badges ? of 2,229.

This is a far cry from Azerbaijan?s tiny delegations of the past. Before COP28 in Dubai, Azerbaijan?s delegation amounted to an average of six people.

The second-largest delegation this year comes from Brazil with 1,914 participants. Brazil typically brings one of the largest delegations and this year is no exception. A substantial delegation from Brazil was also likely considering they will be hosting COP30 next year.

The third-largest delegation comes from Turkey (1,892), followed by UAE (1,011) and China (969). The rest of the top 10 comprises Russia (900), Indonesia (810), Nigeria (634), Japan (595) and Kazakhstan (478).

Just outside the top 10 is the UK in 11th (470), as well as the US (405) in 16th and Australia (394) in 19th.

Azerbaijan has seen the biggest increase in delegation size since COP28, increasing by 995 people. This is followed by Turkey (966 more) and Russia (448).

The smallest delegations belong to Niger and San Marino (two), Nicaragua (three), and Andorra and North Korea (five).

Unsurprisingly, the largest decrease in delegation size is for the United Arab Emirates (dropping by 3,148). Next is India (909) and France (649), while the US delegation has shrunk by 434. (BusinessDay)

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