Baku, Azerbaijan The outcome of the recent elections in the United States looms large on the United Nations Climate Change Summit, which opened in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. As thousands of delegates gathered at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, the venue of this year’s meeting, questions lingered regarding the role and leadership of the U.S. moving forward. However, the current U.S. special envoy for climate arrived here hopeful, reiterating Washington’s leadership in this critical global issue. “The work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States with commitment, passion and belief,” John Podesta said to journalists at a press conference on the opening day. “This is not the end of our fight for a cleaner, safer planet. Facts are still facts. Science is still science. The fight is bigger than one election, one political cycle in one country.” As COP29 opens in Baku, the global community is emerging from another challenging year marked by devastating extremes: relentless heat waves, catastrophic floods, widespread crop failures and fierce forest fires — underscoring the pressing need for action and collaboration among nations to fight the climate crisis. “This fight is bigger still because we are all living for a year defined by the climate crisis in every country of the world,” Podesta told journalists. U.S. voters elected Donald Trump as their next president following the elections Nov. 5th. Trump has referred to climate change as a hoax. He pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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