U.N. Climate Summit Kicks Off in Brazil Amid "Turbo-charged" Extreme Global Weather

The 30th U.N. climate change conference begins today in the Brazilian rainforest city of Belem, located at the mouth of the Amazon River. The summit opens as a major typhoon hit the Philippines killing at least eight people and displacing more than 1.4 million others. Typhoon Fung-wong hit as the Philippines is still recovering from Typhoon Kalmaegi which killed at least 224 people last week. Democracy Now! speaks with former Philippine climate negotiator Yeb Saño, chair of the Laudato Si’ Movement, who warns that global steps to stop the climate crisis are “too little and probably too late.”

Over 5000 fossil fuel lobbyists were given access to U.N. climate summits over the past four years, a period marked by a rise in catastrophic extreme weather, adequate climate action and record oil and gas expansion. “This is climate obstruction at work,” says Nina Lakhani, senior climate justice reporter for The Guardian US. She notes that lobbyists attend climate conferences to “promote false solutions like carbon based carbon markets, carbon capture and storage — these market based solutions which are not going to save the planet.”