“In January, we’re about to inaugurate a president whose relationship with climate change is defined by the words ‘deception’ and ‘fossil fuel,'” Mr. Podesta said.
“He has promised to dismantle our environmental safeguards and pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement once again.”
“That’s what he said and we have to believe him.”
The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries agree to try to keep global temperature rises below 1.5C.
In the coming days, the leaders of almost 100 countries will speak at the meeting.
COP29 was seen as an opportunity to address the critical challenge of getting money to poor countries to help them cope with and prepare for the effects of climate change.
But expectations of what the summit might achieve have been lowered by Trump’s victory, which makes negotiators from the Biden administration from one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters a lame duck in the process and unable to promise much.
However, the election was not the end of the struggle, Mr. Podesta told reporters.
He believed that as a result of the policies introduced by President Biden, and with the support of states and cities, US emissions will continue their downward trajectory, albeit at a slower pace.
“The struggle is bigger than one election, one political cycle and one country. This struggle is even greater because we are living through a year defined by the climate crisis in every country in the world.”
COP29 began amid the turmoil of scientific gloom. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a report released ahead of the conference that 2024 will be the world’s warmest year ever.
The latest State of the Climate report also shows that our oceans are warming rapidly and the melting of glaciers is accelerating.
“We are on the road to destruction,” COP29 President Mukhtar Babaev said in his opening remarks.
He went on to list examples of climate impacts around the world, saying that “these are not problems of the future” because rising temperatures are causing enormous damage around the world right now.
