The US climate envoy John Podesta has said “we should believe” president-elect Donald Trump when he says he will dismantle the fight against global warming.
Speaking in Baku, Azerbaijan, where almost 100 global leaders gathered for the opening of Cop29 climate negotiations, Mr Podesta said the US election outcome was “bitterly disappointing” in terms of its implications for climate change. While climate change is a matter of life and death “it’s clear the next administration will try to make a U-turn and reverse progress”.
But he said the US was determined to work for a successful outcome at Cop29. The US under president Joe Biden had quadrupled climate finance to $11 billion a year but that funding was likely to be reversed by the Trump administration.
Mr Podesta acknowledged frustration felt by parties to the Paris Agreement by “sudden disengagement” when the US changes administration while the planet is facing catastrophic climate change.
Asked if there was an opening for China to take the lead in the global response, he said: “As the world’s largest emitter they have an obligation to...come forward with a 1.5 [degree] aligned NDC. They have an important role to play.” Nationally determined contributions (NDC) indicate how countries will reduce their emissions.
Cop29 is the only global process to address the rampant climate crisis and “without it humanity would be headed towards 5 degrees of warming”, Simon Stiell, head of UN Climate Change, told the opening session.
He called on leaders to agree an ambitious climate finance goal, and warned the inability of many countries to swiftly reduce emissions and bolster resilience would ultimately impact every economy.
“If at least two-thirds of the world’s nations cannot afford to cut emissions quickly then every nation pays a brutal price...If nations can’t build resilience into supply chains the entire global economy will be brought to its knees,” added Mr Stiell, who is executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Delivering climate finance from rich countries to developing countries – the main agenda item – was a matter of global security, he said, dismissing any notion it should be viewed as charity, as it “aligns with the self-interest of all nations”.
The climate crisis was affecting every single individual in the world in one way or another, Mr Stiell said. “But we cannot afford to continue upending lives and livelihoods in every nation – so let’s make this real: Do you want your grocery and energy bills to go up even more? Do you want your country to become economically uncompetitive? Do you really want even further global instability, costing precious life?”
He added: “If any of your answers to those questions was no, then it is here that parties need to agree a way out of this mess.”
With finalisation of international carbon markets – vital for accelerating global emissions reductions – a priority, he hoped agreed mechanisms would catalyse investments in low-carbon development and clean energy. This year clean energy investment will exceed $2 trillion – nearly double fossil fuel investment, he noted.
Countries needed to work harder to reform the global financial system, Mr Stiell said. “Giving countries the fiscal space they so desperately need...we must get international carbon markets up and running. We must [also] agree adaptation indicators. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. We need to know if we’re on a pathway to increasing resilience,” he said.
Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan has been asked to lead negotiations on this issue.
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