Al Gore calls for reform of COP climate process

euronews (in English)

Former US vice-president now climate campaigner Al Gore said it is 'absurd' that the presidency of the UN climate talks is being repeatedly handed to petrostates, in an exclusive interview with Euronews.

Transcript

00:00In an exclusive interview with Euronews, former U.S. vice president and founder of the Climate

00:07Reality Project, Al Gore, said a reform of the U.N. climate summit is necessary in order

00:13to speed up climate action. The phase-out of fossil fuels is essential for limiting

00:18global warming to 1.5 degrees, but it is paradoxically the second year in a row that the conference

00:24is held in a fossil fuel-dependent country.

00:27I think the process should be reformed. I think it's absurd to have, for example, what

00:33we had last year with the CEO of one of the dirtiest oil companies on the planet serving

00:42as the president of the COP. It's a direct conflict of interest. And while the president

00:49of this COP is not the head of the oil industry, he is very much in sync with this country's

00:57reliance on fossil fuels.

01:02Al Gore noticed that while people are growing increasingly concerned over the climate crisis,

01:07he says the fossil fuel industry continues to promote falsehoods about it.

01:13People are growing more concerned. But at the same time, the fossil fuel industry, which

01:21has an interest in suppressing concern about the climate crisis because they don't want

01:28to reduce the amount of fossil fuel they're burning, they've been very active in trying

01:35to hold back the measures that have to be taken in order to solve this.

01:43But the former U.S. vice president said that the fossil fuel industry is losing some of

01:48its major markets, such as through the advancement of renewable energy generation and the rising

01:53popularity of electric vehicles. Al Gore also believes the younger generation come in with

01:59much stronger opinions about solving the climate crisis.

02:03Scientists have been telling us for a long time that the fact that they were right in

02:08what they said years ago should make all of us pay more attention to what they're saying

02:14now. This could destroy the future of humanity if we don't take bold action.

02:20Al Gore is hopeful and said he believes in humanity's ability to rise to the challenge,

02:25but that action is urgently needed.

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