Kristy Dahl, with Climate Central, explains some of the big topics that leaders from around the world will be discussing in regards to climate change at the 30th annual COP conference.
00:00World leaders and scientists from nearly 200 countries are gathering in Brazil for COP30,
00:05the two-week United Nations Climate Summit aimed at accelerating global action on climate change.
00:11And joining us from San Francisco is Christy Dahl.
00:14Christy is Vice President for Science with Climate Central.
00:17Christy, thanks so much for joining us here on AccuWeather Ahead.
00:21What are the goals and the main focus for this year's Climate Summit?
00:25Yeah, well, at this year's Climate Summit, leaders are going to be discussing more than 100 potential agreements that they're trying to reach consensus on.
00:35But there are four big ones that stand out for me.
00:38One is a global goal on adaptation and how we know as a planet whether we are helping communities really adapt to climate change.
00:46One is around just transition, so how we are supporting people whose livelihoods are being affected by climate change.
00:54One is taking stock of where we are and figuring out how we increase ambition to get ourselves on track to meet the goals of international climate agreements.
01:04And then the final one is around climate finance.
01:07So how much support are wealthier nations providing to less wealthy nations to help them prepare for and adapt to climate change?
01:16Really important topics there.
01:18And I know Brazil was also the site of the first major climate meeting back in 1992.
01:23So why is the summit returning there this year?
01:26Yeah, well, this is an interesting question.
01:28These summits rotate around in different parts of the globe.
01:31And you're right that roughly 30 years ago, there was a very important summit that led to, you know, furthering of the climate negotiations.
01:39So the goal of this one is to really place these talks at the gateway to the Amazon so that the negotiators really have the health and well-being of places like the Amazon and its indigenous peoples in mind as they're coming to agreements.
01:55And what kind of progress or change are you expecting and what might be possible at this year's summit?
01:59Yeah, well, you know, it's difficult.
02:02These negotiations are a consensus-based process, which means that all countries around the world have to agree to something in order for it to move forward.
02:13If you've ever tried to, like, get your kids to agree on what movie to watch in the afternoon, you know how hard consensus can be.
02:20So progress may be smaller than we want to see, but we really do hope to see wealthier nations step up in providing more climate finance to nations that have contributed very little to the problem but are really on the front lines of it.
02:36You're heading to Brazil later this week.
02:38I know you talked about some of the topics you're most focused on, but what parts of the conference are you going to be participating in later this week?
02:45Yeah, so organizations like mine, which is a nonprofit organization, are called observer organizations.
02:53And what that means is that we are not, and I am certainly not, going to be one of the people negotiating on behalf of my country.
03:01But observer organizations can listen in on parts of those negotiations to see where the issues stand.
03:08There's also a really large ecosystem of climate organizations and people from all around the world who gather for these negotiations.
03:17There will be about 50,000 people there from all around the world.
03:21So it's a really amazing opportunity to just take the pulse of the climate community and see what the big issues are for people in different countries all around the planet and where people see signs of hope or despair.
03:34All right, Christy Dahl, Vice President for Science with Climate Central.
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