JUDY WOODRUFF: In his remarks to
global leaders today, President
Biden said that climate change
is -- quote -- "ravaging the world."
That message is likely to be
delivered repeatedly at the U.N.
summit on climate change. Leaders,
researchers and activists all
say that humans are at a tipping
point to reduce emissions
and pressed the need for
meaningful action. But getting
commitments that translate to
real change is no small lift.
William Brangham reports on the stakes of
this summit.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the small
Belgian town of Pepinster,
heavy machinery finishes what
the floodwaters started.
CAMILLE BRISBOIS, Belgium
(through translator): This
situation, it's difficult for me.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Camille
Brisbois knows his home is next.
It's the only house he's ever
known.
CAMILLE BRISBOIS (through
translator): I'm sentimental and
emotional. I was born in this
house on December 5, 1946.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It's pain
that was shared across Belgium
and Germany this summer, where
catastrophic floods killed more than 200.
Six thousand miles away, in
the Philippines, 61-year-old
Luzviminda Tayson fears she and
her family will face a similar fate, their
home swept away in a flood.
LUZVIMINDA TAYSON, Flood Evacuee
(through translator): The
monsoon rains are terrifying,
so we decided to evacuate
early. In the last typhoon, it
was difficult to get out. This
time, we didn't want the waters
to rise and be caught in it again.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Across the
Pacific Ocean, that same month,
friends gathered in Olympia,
Washington, to mourn the death
of Barnett Moss, one of the
hundreds who died in a brutal
heat wave.
MARY VAN VERST, Friend of
Barnett Moss: I brought extra
water and implored him to drink
it. I could tell he was
gravely affected by the heat.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Just south
of them, on the same coast,
in the same summer, the Caldor
Fire took Chris Sheean's home.
CHRIS SHEEAN, Fire Victim: Everything that
we owned, everything that we have built is
gone. The only thing that's left standing
is a chimney.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Four lives
among millions more distorted
and lost this year alone from
the impacts of climate change.
A warming atmosphere isn't the sole cause
of these disasters, but the evidence grows
clearer every day that fossil
fuel emissions make these
calamities more frequent, more
severe, more deadly.
MAN: I'm delighted that so many of
you have joined us here in Glasgow.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This is what's
facing leaders and negotiators
from nearly 200 countries
over the next two weeks in
Glasgow. Can those emissions be
curtailed? And can it be done
in time to avoid the worst
outcomes of climate change?
DR. KIM COBB, Climate Scientist,
Georgia Institute of Technology:
There's just a huge amount
at stake this fall. It's almost
hard to put into words, because
the burden on these policy-makers
could not be any greater.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Dr. Kim Cobb
is a climate scientist at the
Georgia Institute of Technology.
She was one of the lead authors
on a recent U.N. climate
report, which showed emissions
rising much faster than
previously known. She says these
COP 26 negotiations could be
historic.
DR. KIM COBB: This is something that is a
clarion call for our generation and future
generations for centuries to
come. Really, we're going to
be deciding what futures we're
bringing down upon ourselves, largely over
the next decade.
And, in part, that can be
distilled to this most historic
year of international ambition,
or lack thereof.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back in 2015,
in the Paris agreement, 196
nations pledged to reduce their
emissions enough to keep
warming below an additional 2
degrees Celsius compared to the
preindustrial era.
The planet has already warmed
over one degree since the 19th
century. The hope in Paris
was to keep warming to just 1.5
degrees. Beyond that threshold,
scientists say the punishing
and lethal effects of climate change will
only get worse.
Here's how, back in 2015,
Princeton University's Michael
Oppenheimer stressed the urgency:
MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER, Professor
of Geosciences and International
Affairs, Princeton University:
If we don't start with rapid
emissions reductions and substantial
emissions reductions, that
we will pass a danger point,
beyond which the consequences
for many people and countries
on Earth will simply become
unacceptable and eventually disastrous.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: At the
conclusion of the Paris talks,
President Obama expressed optimism
that the world understood the severity of
the crisis and was acting.
BARACK OBAMA, Former President
of the United States: I think
we're going to solve it. I
think the issue is just going
to be the pace, and how much
damage is done before we are
able to fully apply the brakes.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But in the
six years since, the world has
only stepped on the gas. Apart
from a brief dip during the
early days of the pandemic,
global emissions have continued
to set records.
More than half of all the
carbon that's been put in the
atmosphere was done in just the
last 30 years. Global temperatures
have also continued to rise.
The last seven years have
been the warmest seven years on record.
ANTONIO GUTERRES, United Nations
Secretary-General: It's time to
say, enough. Enough of brutalizing
biodiversity. Enough of
killing ourselves with carbon.
Enough of treating nature like
a toilet. Enough of burning
and drilling and mining our
way deeper. We are digging our
own graves.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: A report
released by the U.N. last week
said that, at this pace, the
world will blow past those Paris
targets and hit 2.7 degrees
Celsius of warming by the
end of the century.
DR. KIM COBB: It's really
important to realize just how
little we have tipped the scales
in our global climate system,
and how these have translated
into the devastating effects
we're seeing today.
We have warmed 1.1 degrees
Celsius since the preindustrial
era. To double or triple the
kinds of impacts that we're seeing, that's
a 2 or 3 degree Celsius world, and that is
not a world that would be
remotely recognizable to those of
us sitting here today, already
reeling from the effects of
a 1.1 degree Celsius world.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Unrecognizable to us?
DR. KIM COBB: Yes.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right now,
climate change is forcing
massive migrations. One recent
analysis said climate-related
events drive twice as many
people from their homes as war
and violence.
Two weeks ago, the Pentagon,
the White House, DHS, and the
director of national intelligence
all echoed this concern that
-- quote -- "The climate crisis
is reshaping our world" and
that these migrations could trigger
political instability and conflict.
Providing aid to these vulnerable nations
will be another main topic in Glasgow. The
world's major polluters have
failed to fully deliver a
promised $100 billion yearly fund
to help these countries adapt and survive
in a warming world.
GRETA THUNBERG, Climate Activist:
Build back better, blah, blah,
blah. Green economy, blah,
blah, blah. Net zero by 2050, blah, blah,
blah.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the
lead-up to Glasgow, the global
climate movement has continued
to press for action, including
Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg,
who's been excoriating world
leaders for unkept promises.
GRETA THUNBERG: This is all
we hear from our so-called
leaders, words, words that sound
great, but so far have led to no action.
WOMAN: We have to get strong
commitments to reduce emissions by 2030.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As negotiators
in Glasgow hope to forge
the safest possible future,
those on the front lines
continue to suffer the very ugly
present of a warming world.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And William joins me now.
And what a stark picture that
report is painting, William.
So these meetings, a huge
gathering of leaders and activists,
it goes for two weeks. What
is expected is going to come
out of this in practical terms?
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, it is
important to know Glasgow is a
continuation of this process.
Paris, as we heard, set this
it goal of, let's do everything
we can to keep warming of the
planet from going above an
additional 1.5 degrees Celsius.
This meeting in Glasgow is
sort of a check-in of sorts for
all the nations to come together
and say, are we cutting emissions
enough to stay under that threshold?
It's sort of a way to stiffen
the global spine for more action.
One complication on all of
this, though, is that all of
these pledges are voluntary.
There is no built-in enforcement
mechanism. No one should be waiting for a
treaty or pact to be signed at the end of
all of this.
But it is really what happens
after Glasgow, in the weeks
and months and year after yard
afterwards, that we will know whether
these countries took themselves seriously.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, how likely
is it that we are going to
see some measure of success,
some semblance of real success?
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, there
is real hope, but there are
a lot of dark clouds on the
horizon.
The U.S.' position in particular,
there is no doubt that Joe
Biden is in Glasgow right
now with a weakened hand. Last
week, a major climate tool
was taken out of his toolbox
by Joe Manchin. The Build
Back Better has some elements
that are still potent climate
tools. But we know that Manchin
is still dubious about that.
So it's very difficult for the
United States to cajole other
nations and say, act boldly
on this issue, when we have a hard
time doing it here in the U.S.
Same issue also applies to the
other major emitters, China,
India, Brazil. Their leaders
are either not at Glasgow or their pledges
thus far have not gotten us anywhere near
where we need to be.
The important thing to take
away from all of this is that
the gulf between what we know
needs to be done and what
nations have pledged to do is
unbelievably vast. And narrowing
that chasm is the whole goal.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we are
going to be watching it.
You are going to Glasgow next
week. You're going to be reporting
from there for us through
the end of the two-week period.
Thank you, William.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You're welcome, Judy.