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Climate Negotiators Finalize Draft Agreement in Paris; Weather Landmarks for 2015; Geneva Security Remains High amid Terror Alert; Kobani Residents Vow to Rebuild from ISIS Destruction; "Humans of New York" Focuses on Refugees; "Pact of the Catacombs" Vowed to Create Church for the Poor. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired December 12, 2015 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A climate agreement decades in the making. In a couple of hours a document will be presented in Paris that leaders hope could change the future of our planet. We'll go live to Paris in just a moment.

Also: a city reborn just months after ISIS was driven out of Kobani. The people there are ensuring it rises again.

And the secret of the catacombs: how a pact signed and bought (ph) near the Vatican might have molded the beliefs of Pope Francis.

It's all next here on CNN NEWSROOM, live from Atlanta. Thank you for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: And we begin in Paris at the climate change summit, where the French foreign minister says delegates have finalized a draft agreement. Laurent Fabius is expected to present the climate deal in a couple of hours at 11:30 am in Paris. World leaders will vote on it later in the day; 40,000 delegates from 195 countries have been in Paris for almost two weeks, hammering out this deal.

Here's why the climate conference, widely referred to as COP 21, matters. It hopes to produce the first-ever legally binding plan to combat global warming. The agreement would essentially be a legally enforced successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2020 and excludes top greenhouse gas-emitting countries.

Attempts to reach a similar agreement in Copenhagen in 2009 failed, meaning all eyes have been on COP 21, on these talks in Paris for a lasting solution.

Do they have it?

Well, let's go to John Sutter. He has been covering these past two weeks for us there in Paris. And, John, what is the mood like and what are you hearing?

JOHN SUTTER, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: So I think there's a lot of anxiety and anticipation here in the air at COP 21. Like you said, this conference has been going on for about two weeks now.

But this is an agreement really years and years in the making. The U.N. and the world has tried to come together many times to agree to cut climate change emissions and basically move out of the fossil fuels era.

This is an extremely difficult thing to do. It's hard to get 195 countries to agree on anything, much less an issue that's contentious. So I think everyone is waiting with a lot of anxiety to see what the ministers do here and whether they agree to this deal and also what exactly is in it.

Some of the points that have been contentious over these last couple of weeks are exactly who will be on the hook for cutting emissions and by how much, who helps pay for that transition. We'll see exactly how those details that will really make or break this agreement, how those play out here in just a couple hours.

ALLEN: All right, John, we know that President Obama talked with the Chinese president on Friday, both recommitting themselves to this agreement.

What are the countries, who are the countries that are most important here as far as being the biggest polluters in the world?

SUTTER: So I think the two you mentioned are the two to watch, essentially the U.S. and China. China is now the biggest annual emitter of climate change emissions. The United States, since the Industrial Revolution, has done more to cause global warming than any other country. So these are the two big players here.

Also India is hugely important, you know, growing, rapidly growing economy. They also have a lot of people who don't have electricity and, from a human rights perspective, getting them on the grid but in a clean way is a hugely difficult but important thing.

I also think players like Saudi Arabia will have something to say here. There are a couple of wild card countries like that, that have opposed some major parts of this deal, including the temperature cap at 2 degrees or even 1.5 degrees Celsius.

So I think we'll be watching very closely to see which countries speak up during this big meeting after the Texas release and if any try to throw a wrench in the gears right at the last moment.

ALLEN: All right. We'll be waiting to hear and you'll be covering it for us. John Sutter there in Paris. Thank you.

Well, let's talk about how important this is, considering the records that we are seeing on planet Earth. And Derek Van Dam is here to bring us those numbers. Of course it is, let's see, December 12th. I'm wearing flip-flops.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's a very good point. Extremely warm across the eastern half of the United States. Running 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above where we should be. Good catch, by the way. We've reached these dubious milestones this year, being 2015.

We are now at 1 degree Celsius or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial average temperatures across the world. We've also reached that dubious 400 parts per million --

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VAN DAM: -- carbon dioxide average across the globe as well. Significant stuff that's going to alter the climatology of our planet.

Take a look at this. Here's our two milestones we've reached in 2015, 400 parts per million. That is going to influence our weather because carbon dioxide is part of the global greenhouse gases that trap heat within the Earth's atmosphere and that leads to things like sea level rise.

Take a look at this artist's rendition of London.

Have you been there?

That's the River Thames. There's Westminster. And yes, we all know this region.

But can you imagine a 2- or 4-degree warming above preindustrial average temperatures?

Well, that means that this part of London could potentially flood from sea level. And it's not only London that has that concern. Remember, 44 percent of the world's population lives within 150 kilometers from the sea.

So that means there are a lot of susceptible cities with major populations that could give way to sea level rise, just like Shanghai, for instance. Another artist's rendition of the financial district across this area; 4 degrees Celsius means that much of those districts will be inundated with at least half a meter of water, if not more.

In fact, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, as well as Thailand. This area is extremely susceptible. It is expected, according to scientists, that it could be impacted 10 percent to 15 percent greater than the average sea level rise going forward by the end of the century. So that's an area of the world we'll want to look to.

And speaking of sea level rise, when we combine that with typhoons that have been gaining in intensity and frequency across the Western Pacific, we've got a recipe for disaster. The Philippines, obviously very low elevation; this is our latest tropical storm that has developed across this area and, guess what, it's going to intensify. It has the potential of bringing rain and strong winds to places like

Manila.

I'll leave you with this image coming out of COP 21, Paris, the Eiffel tower. Yes, they are using it as a platform to broadcast some strong but very simple language to the world: 1.5 degrees Celsius. That's what we're trying to cap this global warming to.

ALLEN: It's also been lit up in green the past two weeks, hasn't it?

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ALLEN: OK. Thanks, Derek.

Other news that we're following for you, armed guards are watching over the U.N. building in Geneva right now after the U.S. warned Geneva that it may be the target of a terror attack.

The warning comes as authorities there search for at least two people linked to the Paris killings. Geneva's police chief says it's possible ISIS has a terror cell in Geneva. Our Nic Robertson is there.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: To that heightened threat level here already leading to one security situation on Friday at Geneva airport. Part of the airport in a security lockdown for about 20 minutes while police investigated two suspicious pieces of luggage.

One was discovered to be a piece of lost luggage. The other one was destroyed by a controlled detonation. That really gives you an indication of the heightened security alert that this area is under right now.

Why is this happening?

Because Swiss authorities have received three pieces of information, one of them coming from U.S. intelligence saying that they picked up chatter among four ISIS operatives inside Syria, indicating they were potentially planning an attack in Geneva. Those four ISIS members, their whereabouts now are unknown.

Also in the past few days a vehicle, a van with Belgian registration plates driven into Switzerland; when the Swiss authorities investigated it they found that the owner of that van was associated, connected with some of the Paris attackers from last month. That's given them additional cause for concern.

And also another one of the Paris attackers, his identity is now clear. He was recruited to ISIS by a radical who lived in this area. That radical is now in jail in France. However, another associate of his in Syria went to join ISIS, is now back, his whereabouts unknown. He's a Swiss national.

So all of these three pieces, do they add up to anything?

Are there connections?

That's what the authorities here are looking at. U.N. right behind me there, the biggest U.N. headquarters outside of New York. The guards there, bigger automatic weapons in their hands today than you would normally see. So this is a city very worried right now about its security -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Geneva, Switzerland.

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ALLEN: Kabul, Afghanistan, has seen its security breached. In the past few hours the Afghan interior ministry says a siege in the capital that started on Friday is now over and police special forces killed all the attackers. The Taliban are claiming responsibility for the suicide attacks.

A source says a car bomb exploded near the Spanish embassy in Kabul. Spanish officials say --

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ALLEN: -- two of their police officers died. And clashes continued into the night in the embassy corridor. This comes as the Afghan government tries to revive peace talks with the Taliban.

A Syrian city is reduced to rubble by ISIS but now, brick by brick, the people are building it back. We'll go inside Kobani with our Ben Wedeman.

Also ahead here, a rare look deep inside the Vatican catacombs. A secret pact signed there decades ago could be the blueprint for Pope Francis's agenda today. We'll have the special report. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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ALLEN: One look at the city of Kobani, Syria, you can understand the power of ISIS militants. They have been attacking that city for months. But Kurdish forces managed to retake the town with the help of airstrikes. Kobani is in ruins.

But as CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman discovered, the people there plan to rebuild.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seventeen-year-old Hamula (ph) sends his pigeons flying over his hometown of Kobani, flying over a town of ruins and rubble but where hope lives on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

WEDEMAN (voice-over): "What makes me happy now is that I am home, despite all the destruction around us," he says.

For five months, from September of 2014 to January of this year, an intense battle raged between ISIS and Kurdish fighters, accompanied by heavy airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. ISIS is --

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WEDEMAN (voice-over): -- gone and many of the town's residents, like Mustafa Kouaz (ph), have returned to find homes damaged almost beyond recognition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

"Daish fighters were upstairs on the second floor," he tells me, "and the Kurdish fighters came in from below. There was a battle here."

He lived here with his wife, married sons and their families, 19 people in all. Now he's hoping just to make one room livable.

But there is life among the ruins. Kobani took a beating, but shops are open. Some areas are a wasteland or, to the children, a very rocky playground, where they reenact with stones the battles of just a few months ago.

WEDEMAN: More than 70 percent of the buildings in Kobani were either damaged or destroyed. Despite that, there is a will to rebuild this town. The challenge is finding a way to do it.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Abdulrahman Hamul (ph) is the general coordinator for Kobani reconstruction.

"We're building this new neighborhood for people who have lost their homes," he says, "but as you can see, we've stopped because we can't import any cement from Turkey."

Wary of Kurdish ambitions to build a state on the ruins of Northern Syria, Turkey has closed the nearby border crossing. As a result, desperately needed building materials are in short supply. Rebuilding this town could take a very long time, but like a phoenix rising from the ashes, it will rise again -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Kobani, Syria.

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ALLEN: We wish them well. So many Syrians are either staying in their homes, trying to stay safe or they're leaving to find a place where they can live in safety.

Photographer Brandon Stanton, you've probably heard of him, creator of the hugely popular "Humans of New York" blog, is documenting refugees' stories, including a young woman named Aya who fled Syria and Iraq. CNN's Fareed Zakaria sat down to talk with them both.

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FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST (voice-over): Earlier this week President Obama commented on this picture of a Syrian refugee on a Facebook feed with 16 million followers.

Brandon Stanton is the creator of that feed and related blog, "Humans of New York." For more than a week now he has been posting a series of pictures and stories.

Why are you doing this?

Why are you posting these stories of refugees?

BRANDON STANTON, CREATOR "HUMANS OF NEW YORK": For the blog, I just stopped random people on the streets of New York City. And the population of people that I've been most drawn to are the stories of refugees.

And the tragedy of their stories, learning what they experienced in Syria and Iraq, has been completely eye-opening to me. And it's been a story that I also want to be able to tell to my audience.

ZAKARIA: Aya, you were 7 years old, living in Iraq when the Iraq war began.

You know, for many Americans that don't want refugees, they worry about safety. They worry about these people who will take jobs away.

What do you say to those Americans?

AYA, IRAQI REFUGEE: We ran away from war. So we are not giving to be dangerous in your country. We just want to live in peace and we want to live that good life. We want to work. We want to study.

So we are really normal human beings but we just like saw a lot of horrible things in our life. I want to live in freedom and I want to live in some place that it's safe.

STANTON: There are millions of refugees. The United States is taking 10,000. They have the luxury of saying no to almost every one. And so, they don't need a reason to say no. They don't need for someone to be a security threat to say no. They can say no for anything.

I interviewed 12 families, the 12 families in Turkey and Jordan that were going to America that were willing to be interviewed. They all either had an extreme physical handicap in the family or a Ph.D. That's how selective we're being. And because of that, people like Aya, who is one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever met and she's done everything right, she's done everything right.

She did it the legal way and she applied and she has nowhere to go and they're telling her no.

And what's going to happen to her?

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ALLEN: Very emotional Brandon Stanton there with our Fareed Zakaria. And you can watch the full interview here on CNN Sunday. That's at noon London time on "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS."

Coming up here, the catacombs at the Vatican. Why these dark chambers could be the seat of Pope Francis's core beliefs.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM.

As the Catholic Church's Holy Year of Mercy gets under way, the beliefs of Pope Francis are coming into sharper view and it seems the pope may have been influenced by a secret pact signed by Catholic bishops 50 years ago. CNN Vatican correspondent Delia Gallagher has more on the so-called Pact of the Catacombs.

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DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ninety-two- year-old Father Luigi Bettazzi is the last known survivor of a secret pact that experts say may have influenced Pope Francis.

Signed 50 years ago at the time of Vatican 2 by Catholic bishops in this underground church in Rome called the Pact of the Catacombs, it vowed to create a poor church for the poor, the same church Pope Francis says he wants today.

FATHER LUIGI BETTAZZI (through translator): I always say that Pope Francis is the new catacombs pact.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): Now, this pact had 13 points and, in it, these bishops vowed to avoid wealth or the appearance of wealth, including in what they wore, not wearing rich vestments or loud colors, avoiding gold and silver. They also said they wouldn't accept invitations to extravagant dinners.

They also vowed to put pressure on international organizations to help change the economic structures which they said exploit the poor. These are all points that are remarkably similar to Pope Francis's agenda for the church today.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): Father Bettazzi says the bishops made the pact because they were disappointed that Vatican 2 did not talk enough about the poor.

FATHER BETTAZZI (through translator): We were a bit disappointed that the council had not spoken.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): The signers sent a letter to the pope at the time, Paul VI. But Bettazzi says the Vatican was too --

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GALLAGHER (voice-over): -- afraid of the political, especially Marxist connections of aligning themselves too much with the struggles of the poor.

GALLAGHER: This pact is mysterious because after it was signed it essentially went underground and the promises it made were kept alive only by a few. And what we know about it today is based on letters and the testimony of those who signed it.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): American nun Sister Sally Hodgdon recently addressed a Vatican conference on the Pact of the Catacombs. She says knowledge of the pact was kept alive mostly in Latin America and became a foundational document for the Latin American church's focus on the poor.

SISTER SALLY HODGDON: There were 500 bishops who signed it later, most of them from Latin America, so my guess is that Pope Francis did know about it as he grew up in the church in Latin America.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): Pope Francis has said that reaching out to the poor is what Jesus did. But like the pact, he also wants a church that is poor, one without extravagant clothing, fancy titles or apartments, especially at the Vatican.

HODGDON: Even before Pope Francis all of us were trying to live this, without referring to the Pact of the Catacombs. So it isn't that when we've had different popes we haven't tried to live gospel poverty. But it's just easier now.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): A secret pact for a poor church that has languished underground for 50 years, now resurrected through the work of Pope Francis -- Delia Gallagher, CNN, Rome.

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ALLEN: That's CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. Next here, it's "POLITICAL MANN."

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