Dubai will grow in population by the equivalent of a small city as a record number of delegates descend upon the desert metropolis later this month for this year’s COP28 climate summit.

According to the UNFCCC, more than 70,000 people are expected to attend the Nov. 30-Dec.12 UN-organised event, including representatives from governments, business leaders, young people, climate scientists, Indigenous peoples, journalists, and various other experts and stakeholders.

To put that in context: the current record for Conference of the Parties attendees is held by last year’s COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, which the UNFCCC said attracted just shy of 50,000 people.

Before that, 2021’s COP26 in Glasgow and 2015’s COP21 in Paris were the only two climate conferences to exceed 30,000 visitors.

COP28 is set to shatter all previous records, and will see roughly the same number of people pass through its doors as there were festival-goers stranded at the week-long, rain-soaked, and mud-laden Burning Man event in Nevada this summer.

This year’s UN summit is attracting record attention, in part because climate action is quickly rising on corporate and government agendas worldwide amid soaring global temperatures and more frequent and intensifying natural disasters including forest fires, floods, and droughts.

But there’s a growing view that the annual event has morphed into what some have dubbed a “circus” – essentially a massive, international, climate-themed trade show, with the number of countries and organisations exhibiting their wares – some from pavilions with the square footage of a modest house – increasing every year.

COP28 also will feature the first ever global ‘stocktake’, where countries will collectively evaluate the progress being made towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, which will celebrate its eighth anniversary next month.

Governments are expected to leave Dubai acknowledging that the world remains off track to limiting global warming to 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius, and that they must therefore drastically raise their ambition in the next round of national climate plans, or NDCs, which are due to be presented by 2025.

Discussions at COP28 also need to make progress in several workstreams, including hammering out the details of the loss and damage finance facility to help vulnerable communities deal with immediate climate impacts, driving towards a global goal on finance that would help fund developing countries’ efforts in addressing climate change, and accelerating both an energy and a just transition, to name a few.

“COP28 must be a ‘can-do COP’ where countries show how these tools will be put to work in the crucial next two years, to urgently pick up the pace,” the UNFCCC said.

But the question on many observers’ minds is: does increased COP attendance equate to more distractions, or even more controversy?

Some criticisms already being thrown at this year’s event centre around the influence of the fossil fuel industry over the ongoing talks, which for the next 12 will be presided over by Sultan Al-Jaber, the CEO of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).

His appointment has undermined the credibility of the summit even before it began, argue environmental campaigners.

Red flags are also being raised over the increasing number of lobby groups and consultancies getting involved, with the likes of McKinsey being accused of using its position as a key advisor to the COP28 hosts to push the interests of its oil and gas clientele.

And despite the fact that many COP28 attendees will offset their travel emissions, the amount of CO2 emitted from all the flights to and from Dubai over that fortnight – from both airlines and private jets – will certainly be a magnet for indictments of hypocrisy.

But those making the trip will counter that more progress is being made meeting in-person to discuss solutions to this existential crisis than what might be accomplished staying at home.

Carbon Pulse is sending a team of 14 reporters to Dubai – also an all-time high for us. Pop by our news bureau in the media centre to say hi.