This year, it was Baku’s turn to host the annual UN Climate Conference, COP29. But if you think COP is just a place where negotiators wrangle over climate agreements for days on end, fuelled by stale sandwiches and caffeine overdoses, think again. Behind those intense plenary sessions, COP is also the grand stage where side events, backdoor meetings, and high-profile functions are the beating heart of business, diplomacy, and everything in between.

Today, COP isn’t just a climate junkie’s paradise; it’s the ‘reality conference’. Gone are the days when it was purely about ideology and utopian visions of saving the planet. These days, it’s getting serious. Governments, businesses, and NGOs are now knee-deep in the complicated realities of decarbonising the global economy. The once hopeful ‘we-can-do-it-all’ enthusiasm has given way to the sobering realisation that this is a tough task. And that’s exactly why agreements are getting trickier to nail down. After all, transforming global energy systems is as complex as it gets.

While the media fixates on the theatrics of climate diplomacy, the real show is happening offstage. This is where policymakers, investors, and climate experts exchange business cards, hash out partnerships, and strike deals that never make the front page. Forget the formalities of negotiating texts; the true COP magic happens in hotel lobbies, at exclusive side panels, or even over Azerbaijani coffee.

One shift that’s hard to ignore is how conversations around energy have matured. It’s no longer just a battle of renewable versus fossil fuels. A topic now dominating these off-agenda chats is – you guessed it – nuclear energy. And let’s be honest, in most parts of the world, the debate about whether nuclear is necessary is over. From Europe to the United States, even the most stringent critics of carbon emissions recognise that we need nuclear power to stabilise energy grids and hit those climate targets. This is no longer a conversation about ‘if’; it’s about ‘how’, and ‘when’.

At COP28 in Dubai, an ambitious announcement set the tone for nuclear’s rising prominence: a global commitment to triple nuclear capacity by 2050. That momentum has carried into Baku, where multiple countries have declared bold plans. Just yesterday, AtkinsRéalis Group Inc. announced a major deal to build two new CANDU nuclear reactors in Romania – the first new CANDU reactors to be built since 2007. It’s a significant move that underscores nuclear’s central role in many nations’ decarbonisation strategies.

One of the many events I attended this week at COP29 saw representatives from Sweden, Bulgaria, Turkey, France, Azerbaijan, the USA, Poland, the UAE, Japan, the UK, and many others highlighting the urgency of nuclear power to meet climate goals, ensure energy security, and strengthen international collaboration. Experts from hard-to-abate industries and the data centre sector also emphasised the need to accelerate nuclear deployment in various side events. With its abundant uranium resources and technological capacity, Australia should seize this opportunity to contribute to the global nuclear supply chain and development, playing a pivotal role in this mission for a sustainable future.

Sama Bilbao y León, head of the World Nuclear Association, put it best when she told me: ‘This is the moment for nuclear to make a difference. The last two COPs are testimony to the growing support we’re seeing.’ She added a crucial point: ‘If our goal is to build more solar and wind, we’re doing okay. But if our goal is to decarbonise faster, we’re not doing so well. And if our goal is to generate 24/7 cheap, reliable energy, we need nuclear.’

And yet, we Aussies insist on being different. As we walk into COP29, Australia remains the perplexing outlier still caught in an ideological debate over nuclear’s merits. It’s like watching a global choir sing in harmony about the need for nuclear, while Australia stands off in the corner, clutching its songbook, and hesitating over the lyrics. It’s baffling, especially when you consider that we possess the world’s largest uranium reserves, sitting untapped and unappreciated.

Australia needs to follow what’s happening at COP and around the world: be pragmatic, set aside idealistic political views, and join the global nuclear supply chain. This shift isn’t just for our own economic stability but also for the sake of the planet. As the world charges ahead with nuclear as a critical piece of the decarbonisation puzzle, we must align with this global momentum or risk being left behind, still debating while others are already building.

And for those who are sceptical of COPs, my advice is think twice. These conferences are more than just talk – they’re a valuable way of engaging on an international level and discovering firsthand where business, investment, and policies are heading. And they’re all moving in one direction: to get to Net Zero, we need every solution on the table.