COP28 crowds: a dangerous distraction or sign of success?

News Snapshot:

DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Flashy country pavilions, corporate-sponsored cocktail parties and a smorgasbord of side events have turned the annual U.N. climate summit into what some say is a trade show or circus. In this year's gleaming host city of Dubai, billboards advertise the benefits of wind energy, climate ambition and Exxon Mobil's (XOM.N) carbon capture projects. And with a record 84,000 registered attendees, this year's Conference of the Parties, or COP28, is a far cry from the first in Berlin in 1995, a low-key affair with fewer than 4,000 delegates focused on multilateral climate change cooperation. This is...