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00:00The COP 29 talks have opened today in Baku in Azerbaijan with renewed calls for global
00:07cooperation to combat climate disaster. The head of the United Nations World Meteorological
00:13Organization said she's sounding a red alert saying this is another SOS for the planet.
00:19The re-election of Donald Trump has cast a shadow on this year's talks.
00:24He's described climate change in the past as a hoax, while the choice of Azerbaijan
00:29to host this year's conference has also raised eyebrows. This from France 24's Emerald Maxwell.
00:39Dubbed the finance cop, the goal of this year's summit, getting money to the developing countries
00:45facing the worst effects of climate change. These nations are pushing for at least one trillion
00:51dollars a year, which the United Nations climate chief said should not be seen as charity because
00:57no country was immune from the climate crisis. An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in
01:03the self-interest of every single nation, including the largest and the wealthiest.
01:12The developed countries that currently contribute the money want other rich nations and top emitters,
01:17including China and the Gulf states, to pitch in too, an idea firmly rejected by Beijing.
01:24Many leaders, including those of China and the United States, were conspicuous
01:28by their absence at COP29, but worse could be yet to come in the shape of US President-elect
01:34Donald Trump, who has promised to again pull out of the 2015 Paris agreement.
01:40The US climate envoy said Monday, though, that Trump's election victory
01:44wouldn't stop the work by American cities, states and citizens.
01:48While the United States federal government under Donald Trump may put climate action on the back
01:55burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States
02:01with commitment and passion and belief. It was a sentiment echoed by climate activists.
02:08The work must go on. It cannot and does not hinge on any one country. And Trump's re-election can
02:15never be an excuse for other nations to scale back the ambition needed.
02:21With 2024 likely to break new temperature records, the UN has warned that the world is on a path
02:28towards a catastrophic 3.1 degrees Celsius of warming this century, based on current actions.
02:36Well, I'm joined now here on France 24 by Henna Hundal, who is a lobbyist for various environmental
02:44groups and an activist on climate change. Thank you so much for your time. I know you're very busy
02:50at the moment. It's very good of you to join us. I wanted just to ask by, you know, the biggest
02:57thing, the thing, the elephant in the room that everyone is thinking of, this big issue that this
03:02year, the United States delegation can pretty much agree to whatever they like, and Donald Trump
03:08might rip it up in January. What does that do to this COP 29 summit?
03:16Thank you for having me. I appreciate this discussion and you raised some important
03:20questions. What does President-elect Trump's victory, really sweeping victory in the election
03:25last week, mean for the future of United States commitment to global climate action?
03:31I think in many respects, it remains a very open question, but we also know the fact that President
03:37Trump, when he was in his first term in office, he was certainly not great on the climate front.
03:42You know, he wanted to remove the United States from the Paris Agreement during that term.
03:46He's probably going to do it again according to his pledges. And he's also trying to roll back
03:51a lot of President Biden's climate legacy here in the United States. So I think what that really
03:56does is create a wide open vacuum for global climate leadership. And I'm really hoping that
04:01one of the other historical big emitters will step up to fill that gap. But of course, the fact
04:06that the US is likely not to be pushing climate change issues means there's even less incentive
04:14for other major countries. I think that's the fear right now. You know, you see kind of across
04:20the board, a lot of the leaders that typically show up to these conferences are not purported
04:24to be coming this year. So you have President Biden, who's not coming for the second time.
04:29You have French President Macron, German Chancellor Scholz, Prime Minister Modi of India.
04:36So all these leaders that have a huge stake in these global climate discussions are not making
04:41face. And I think that really says something about where the climate crisis fits on their
04:46list of priorities. And we also know that the world, unfortunately, is rife with several
04:51geopolitical conflicts as well as political conflicts at home. What about this other,
04:57you know, a major embarrassment, really, that this conference is being
05:01hosted by Azerbaijan. It's a major oil producer and allegations that it's been
05:07cutting deals behind the scenes. Doesn't that really undermine the entire conference? Again,
05:13this is being denounced by a lot of activists, perhaps yourself, as huge hypocrisy on the part
05:19of Azerbaijan. You know, I think it's really unfortunate when news like that comes out,
05:24because I derive so much inspiration from my colleagues all around the world. I've been
05:29talking with some colleagues who are already at the conference. And these are people who
05:32maybe come from developing countries, spend energy, effort, time, money that they don't
05:37always have to be able to go to these conferences, are going with their best foot forward, putting
05:42their full faith efforts into fighting the climate crisis, which is impacting their frontline
05:47communities so devastatingly. And so when we have these sort of different distractions,
05:52it really takes away from the work. So I'm, you know, marching forward with hope,
05:56with my fellow community of activists, I'm really buoyed by their efforts. And I hope that we can
06:01sort of refocus on the work ahead, because it's quite crucial. And we need everybody on board
06:05with a good faith effort. So for people who don't follow climate issues closely, and perhaps lose
06:12track of some of the COP conferences and what is agreed or not agreed, what is on the agenda this
06:18time? What might be agreed? Where are we on all of this? Yeah, so COP29 has been characterised as
06:25the finance COP. So there are several different action items on the agenda around that theme.
06:31So we have, for example, the new collective quantified goal, which is trying to create
06:36this comprehensive financial framework to make sure that developing countries can more smoothly
06:41transition away from fossil fuels, reduce emissions and also contend with the impacts of the climate
06:46crisis that they feel acutely. I'm also going to be watching for the loss and damage fund,
06:51because last year, a lot of countries promised millions of dollars to go into this fund to help
06:56developing countries contend with the extremes of the climate crisis, we need to make sure that
07:00those pledges are actually seen through. And what would you like to see come out of this year's
07:07COP29? We're hearing these frightening warnings about the state of climate change and the threats
07:14to the world. We've seen floods, we've seen numerous natural disasters, and we're not even
07:20at the end of this year. What would you like to come out of this year's conference? Yeah, you know,
07:25I think it's so important to set the stage in that regard. I mean, we had the hottest day on record
07:29this summer. We're on track for 2024 to be the hottest year on record, reaching that 1.5 degrees
07:35Celsius limit above pre-industrial levels that we've been warning about since the 2015 Paris
07:40Agreement. We know that, for example, in the United States, we just had serially destructive
07:45hurricanes causing over $53 billion in damages. I mean, this is the year for climate action to be
07:51front and center. And so I think one thing I'm really hopeful about is sort of cross-disciplinary
07:57collaborations on the climate crisis. We saw, for example, last year at COP28, there was the first
08:02ever health day where you saw ministers of health from countries around the world, healthcare
08:07practitioners, come together and figure out how can they contend with this major impact of the
08:12climate crisis, the effects on public health that often is not talked about, but can be a great
08:16messaging tool for people to understand how climate change impacts their daily life. And so I'm
08:21looking forward to seeing more of those types of cross-disciplinary collaborations to remind people
08:26that no one is immune from this crisis and everyone has a role to play to help mitigate it.
08:31Okay, we just have a short time left. I wonder if perhaps here in Europe, there's a lot of
08:36complaining sometimes from businesses and various people that Europe is obsessed with climate change,
08:42that there are too many norms, too many regulations. How would you assess Europe
08:48on the world playing field? Are they good pupils in terms of climate change?
08:54Well, according to the European Environment Agency, Europe is actually the fastest warming
08:58continent on the planet. So not only are they acutely affected by climate change,
09:02but they also have a great role to play, especially some of the historical big emitters there
09:07to help mitigate it. And you bring up the economic example, which I think is so interesting,
09:11because that argument gets made over and over that the transition away from fossil fuels
09:16will create an economic impact that's very hard to sell to the electorate, for example.
09:20We've heard that argument, that very same argument in the United States. It's one that
09:24the Republican Party often tries to make. We also know that in the United States, the lion's share
09:29of clean energy investments from a recent landmark piece of legislation from President Biden have
09:35actually gone to Republican districts. So I think there are ways to make sure that we communicate
09:40the message around that clean energy transition in a way that makes everyone feel included,
09:45not like they're going to be left in the dark. I mean, if you look at COP26, the language of that
09:50pact was phased down of unabated coal power. If you look at COP28, we talked about transition
09:55away from fossil fuels. These are not abrupt changes. These are going to be gradual. We're
10:00going to have to make sure that all communities are included in these decision-making processes
10:04and no one is left behind. And I think we need to do a better job of communicating that,
10:08both in the US and in Europe. Well, we're out of time. Thank you so much,
10:13Hannah Hundahl. Thank you for your time and sharing your thoughts with us from California,
10:17Stanford University in California, talking to us here on France 24.