Climate diplomacy “is strong and will endure” despite the re-election in the United States of Donald Trump, who has promised to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the head of the UN climate body said on Tuesday.
“Our process is strong. It is solid and will endure,” said Simon Stiell at a press conference during COP29 in Baku.
Trump’s landslide victory has cast a long shadow over the negotiations in Baku, where concerns remain over the imminent withdrawal of the United States from the historic 2015 Paris Agreement.
Trump already briefly withdrew his country from the Agreement, a cornerstone of climate negotiations, at the end of his first presidential term.
Stiell reiterated his calls for COP29 to demonstrate that global climate solidarity is not dead.
“Global cooperation is the only way humanity can survive warming,” he said.
Talks in Baku focus on increasing financing to help developing countries adapt to climate change and wean themselves off fossil fuels.
But the small group of rich countries currently financing these funds want the pool of donors to be expanded and are resisting calls to increase the current commitment of $100 billion annually tenfold.
Public opinion in many of these countries is more concerned about inflation and economic conditions than about climate action.
Stiell insisted that both issues are linked.
“The climate crisis is quickly becoming an economy killer,” he warned.
Without climate action, “every country and every household will be hit even harder than they already have.”
“Climate action is insurance against global inflation,” he said.
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