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COP26 Ends in Glasgow with Final Agreement; Putin Disavows Involvement with Belarusian Migrant Standoff; Cuba to Reopen to International Tourists; Taiwan Issue Looms ahead of Biden-Xi Summit; Crackdown in Nicaragua; Nigeria's Lagos Island Battling Severe Erosion; Using Space Technology to Save the Planet; World's Largest Metro System Going Green. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired November 14, 2021 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes, appreciate your company.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, the deal is done but not everyone is thrilled with the COP20 climate agreement.
Plus dozens are dead after a prison riot in Ecuador. It's the same facility where more than 100 were killed just weeks ago.
And Cuba hopes its beaches will be a magnet for tourists, as the nation prepares to reopen for travelers for the first time since the early days of the pandemic.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: And we begin in Glasgow, Scotland, where marathon sessions went into overtime on Saturday. But in the end, nearly 200 negotiators hammered out a final agreement at COP26.
Few were happy with the last-minute change on coal that weakened the language significantly. The British official presiding over the conference became emotional after approving the change and apologizing for the way it happened.
Outside, protesters judge the conference a failure, holding mock headstones of past COP meetings. U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterres admitted the compromise deal was not enough but better than nothing. Here he is.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: We did not achieve these goals at this conference but we have some building blocks for progress. I want to send a message to young people, indigenous communities,
women leaders, all those leading on climate action. I know you are disappointed. But the path of progress is not always a straight line. Sometimes there are detours, sometimes there are ditches. But I know we can get there. We are in the fight of our lives and this fight must be won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now the agreement does reaffirm the importance of trying to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It requests that countries bring more aggressive emissions targets to next year's conference in Egypt.
And it agrees to phase down, that's the wording, phase down the use of coal instead of phase out, a small but significant change requested by India. CNN's Phil Black has been covering the 2-week conference and has the latest for us from Glasgow.
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ALOK SHARMA, BRITISH BUSINESS SECRETARY: Adopt the decision entitled Glasgow Climate Pact, it is so decided.
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They got there in the end, applause but no real joy. The end result, an intensely negotiated agreement that at best achieves incremental progress and ultimately falls short for everyone.
But at a climate conference, that counts as a win. The final draft inspired passionate support from some wealthy countries.
JOHN KERRY, U.S. SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE: And this is good. This is a powerful statement.
FRANS TIMMERMANS, EUROPEAN COMMISSION VICE PRESIDENT: I please implore you, please embrace this text so that we can bring hope to the hearts of our children and grandchildren.
BLACK (voice-over): Vulnerable small island nations were more grudging but they backed it because it clearly describes the importance of keeping average warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And it recognizes the critical need to cut emissions dramatically this decade.
AMINATH SHAUNA, MALDIVAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: I would like to remind us all that we have 98 months to halve global emissions. The difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees is a death sentence for us.
BLACK (voice-over): This COP also made history. For the first time, including texts that calls for countries to move on from coal. But there was a dramatic, last-moment twist. India and others teamed up to insist on weakening that section by changing one key word: phase out became:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Escalating effort to phase down unlimited (ph) coal power.
BLACK (voice-over): It caused deep disappointment.
TINA STEGE, MARSHALL ISLANDS CLIMATE ENVOY: This commitment on coal had been a bright spot in this package. It was one of the things we were hoping to carry out of here and back home with pride. And it hurts deeply to see that bright spot dimmed.
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BLACK (voice-over): The conference president couldn't hide his emotions.
SHARMA: I apologize for the way this process has unfolded and I am deeply sorry. I also understand the deep disappointment. But I think, as you have noted, it's also vital that we protect this package.
BLACK (voice-over): Outside the room, activists and experts predicted real change is coming after Glasgow.
BLACK: Phasing down versus phasing out, what does that mean in practice?
JENNIFER MORGAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GREENPEACE: Well, I actually don't think the change that the change of that word changed the signal, changes that signal. The signal is that coal is on its way out.
NICK MABEY, E3G CLIMATE THINK TANK: The big change here was people finally got the scale of the challenge and the urgency and we finally got a plan that meets that. And that was great but it's -- now it's roll up your sleeves time.
BLACK (voice-over): Scientists say the world needs transformational change. This conference just succeeded in keeping the process alive. That's not enough to ensure hope survives, too -- Phil Black, CNN, Glasgow.
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HOLMES: And we will have much more later this hour when I will be speaking with climate change expert Alden Meyer with the think tank E3G. So stick around for that.
We will also show you how the views from space help scientists track climate change back on Earth. That's also still to come.
Now Ecuador's president called a crisis cabinet meeting on Saturday after dozens of people were killed in clashes at one of the nation's most overcrowded prisons. Officials say at least 68 inmates were killed, another 25 wounded.
Families of inmates gathered outside for word of their loved ones as the death toll grew. Journalist Stefano Pozzebon joins me now from Bogota, Colombia, to talk about this. Good to see you, Stefano. Ecuador's prison system has been under a
state of emergency since deadly clashes in September. And now dozens more dead. Bring us up to date.
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michael, these really scenes just the latest signal of been going that wave violence inside the Ecuador's prison system. And while the government has called for this cabinet meeting to include the Red Cross, human rights organizations and the armed forces, all teaming up together to try to find a solution, the president of Ecuador has also called on to the constitutional court to provide new regulation to try put a stem on the violence and find a long-term solution inside the prison system crisis.
More than 300 inmates, Michael, have been killed inside the jails in the year so far, with massacres registered in February, May, September, which was the biggest one, now just today.
HOLMES: And as you point out, there has been a long string of deaths and clashes in these prisons. What is behind it?
POZZEBON: Authorities have always put the blame on rival gangs competing against each other to control the prisons. The prisons become a key spot in the drug trafficking routes.
Intelligence sources that we spoke back in September when more than 100 inmates were killed in that same prison were pointing at the role of the Mexican cartels, two in particular, the Sinaloa and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva (INAUDIBLE), who go to Ecuador to start the drug trafficking route from South America moves up toward Mexico and North America in the Pacific Ocean.
So that way they team up with local gangs and that brings sort of a change of mentality between gangsters. You've seen levels of violence been rising in Mexico with gangs and cartels waging war against each other.
That war is expanding now inside the prisons of Ecuador, where inmates often have access to high-caliber rifles, automatic firearms and even explosives and grenades. That is a new level of challenge.
That is why several experts, analysts are calling for the government to really overhaul completely the prison system if they really want to tackle the violence.
HOLMES: High-powered rifles inside the prison. Stefano Pozzebon, extraordinary stuff, thanks so much.
All right, at this moment, thousands of migrants are stuck in dark, freezing conditions on the Belarusian border with Poland. And Russia's president again washing his hands of any responsibility.
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HOLMES: Vladimir Putin telling state media that his country has nothing to do with the migrants trapped trying to enter the E.U. But the truth is, the Kremlin remains one of Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko's only allies. And Mr. Lukashenko is accused of using the migrants to challenge E.U. sanctions.
Poland responding by sending troops to the border and that might have led to the death of a Polish soldier. An investigation has been launched after a service member was killed. Officials say it looks like the result of an accidental weapons discharge.
Meanwhile, a private Syrian airline is suspending flights to the Belarusian capital. Poland says Cham Wings was used en masse by migrants coming to Belarus, fueling the migrant crisis. Warsaw praising the route closure as diplomacy in action.
Now many of the migrants are fleeing, of course, conflicts in the Middle East and Asia but reaching the European frontier did not end their troubles. CNN's Fred Pleitgen with details from near the Polish Belarusian border.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Another day in limbo in the freezing cold, gathering any material that will burn to stay warm.
Thousands of migrants remain stranded on the Belarusian side of the border, as Poland says it will not let them enter. Only a few have made it across, like Youssef Atallah from Syria, who says he was abused by Belarusian border guards.
YOUSSEF ATALLAH, SYRIAN REFUGEE: When (INAUDIBLE) guards catch us, they search us and hit me in the face, broke my cheeks here and my nose and broke the teeth (ph) and I have painful (INAUDIBLE) here. Then they took us to the forbidden area.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): "The forbidden area" means the border between Belarus and Poland. Belarus denied abusing migrants and instead accused Poland of a heavy handed approach.
The E.U. said it will further sanction Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, saying he is luring migrants here in a bid to destabilize Europe. MATEUSZ MORAWIECKI, POLISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Now
from distance, those events on the Polish Belarusian border may look like a migration crisis but this is not a migration crisis. It's a political crisis and caused for a specific purpose, for the purpose of destabilizing the situation in the E.U. So what we are facing here -- and we have to state it clearly -- is a manifestation of state terrorism.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Lukashenko is counting on support from his biggest backer, Russian president Vladimir Putin. Hailing Russian strategic bombers that flew over Belarus on Wednesday and threatening to cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe.
ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We are heating Europe and they still threaten us with closing the border. And what if we shut off natural gas there?
I would, therefore, recommend that the leadership of Poland, Lithuania and other headless people think before speaking.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The migrants are caught in the middle of the standoff, unable to advance into the E.U. or head back to their countries of origin.
PLEITGEN: The situation of those camped out at the border between Poland and Belarus is growing more desperate by the day. It's extremely cold and damp out here, with the temperatures dropping below freezing virtually every night.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Activist Piotr Bystrianin tries to help them, showing the clothes, food and water he tries to supply them with.
PIOTR BYSTRIANIN, ACTIVIST, OCALENIE.ORG.PL: People are deteriorating very fast. They are more exhausted. Some of them are sometimes one weeks or two weeks or even longer only in the forest without proper food or without any drinking water.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Poland says it has registered more than 4,000 attempts to illegally cross its border in November alone but says it will not back down -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Poland.
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HOLMES: Russia's escalating COVID crisis shows no signs of slowing down. On Saturday, Russia reporting more than 1,200 deaths. That is another daily record. On Friday, legislation was introduced in the Russian parliament in an effort to control the spread of the virus.
If passed, it would require mandatory use of vaccination, QR codes in public places and on transport.
China is making progress in getting its young people immunized against COVID-19. Officials say they have vaccinated half the child population aged 3 to 11. That's nearly 84.5 million kids.
The government says it also hopes to fully vaccinate all children in this age group by the end of the year.
Beginning Monday, Cuba will reopen its doors to foreign travelers. They are hoping to kickstart an economy ravaged by COVID.
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HOLMES: But tough U.S. sanctions may limit the impact of tourist dollars. CNN's Patrick Oppmann explains.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Workers in Old Havana make final repairs ahead of Cuba's reopening. For most of the pandemic, the island has been closed for international tourism. Nearly all international flights were canceled. Visitors had to quarantine.
Once-packed colonial squares and bars where Ernest Hemingway downed mojitos were all but abandoned. It hit the many Cubans, who depend on tourism, particularly hard. For 30 years, Alberto Reyes says he made a living selling drawings to tourists in front of Havana's cathedral. He told us he has not sold a single one during the pandemic.
"My hope now is to be able to provide for my kids," he says. "I have three kids and we were going hungry."
Starting on Monday, Cuba will increase international flights and welcome back tourists. Now visitors who are fully vaccinated or have had a negative PCR test 72 hours before arrival will no longer have to quarantine.
Cuban officials say the massive effort to vaccinate the population with homegrown vaccines has allowed them to welcome back tourists and their badly-needed hard currency.
"Our population keeps getting vaccinated," he says. "Everything indicates our scientists have made a discovery of great value for our people and I think we are very well positioned. We are optimistic."
But the pandemic isn't the only impediment preventing some tourists from coming.
Sanctions implemented by the Trump administration and continued by the Biden administration severely limit the ways Americans can visit the island and prevent them from staying in government-run hotels.
OPPMANN: Throughout the pandemic, the Cuban government's continued to build hotels like never before. But many of these projects began when U.S.-Cuban relations were much improved and U.S. tourists were flooding the island.
Now, even as COVID travel restrictions are lifted, most Americans won't be able to visit because of U.S. sanctions.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Some tour operators say clients may be wary of visiting Cuba, after widespread anti government protests shook the island in July. The Cuban government responded with mass arrests and lengthy jail sentences, which led to more U.S. sanctions.
COLLIN LAVERTY, CUBA EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL: So when things get challenging between the United States and Cuba or there is a lot of political turmoil or negative flashpoints on the ground, certainly, that dissuades people from looking at Cuba as a destination.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Cuban officials say, they are now open to visitors. But to rebuild the island's tourism industry, they may have a long road ahead of them -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
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HOLMES: Still to come here on the program, international condemnation of Nicaragua's election, activists and citizens say that they don't feel safe from the regime of president Daniel Ortega, even after fleeing the country.
Plus, why some activists blame a high-end construction project for eroding parts of Nigeria's coastline.
You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. We will be right back.
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HOLMES: Ahead of this week's virtual summit, the U.S. is urging China to engage in dialogue to resolve the Taiwan issue. In a phone call with his Chinese counterpart, U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken expressed concern over China's, quote, "military, diplomatic and economic pressure" against Taiwan.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, in turn, warned Blinken against sending, quote, "the wrong signal" on Taiwan independence. The virtual summit between U.S. President Biden and Chinese President Xi is set for Tuesday morning, Beijing time.
Now we are hearing more reaction from former Trump White House officials after a U.S. federal grand jury, indicted longtime Trump ally, Steve Bannon, for contempt of Congress. It comes after Bannon refused to comply with the subpoena from the committee, investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol
He is charged with one count, for refusing to testify and another, for failing to turn over documents. His lawyer, argued, Bannon was shielded by former president Donald Trump's executive privilege. But that argument didn't hold water with the Justice Department.
Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah spoke with CNN's Pamela Brown about her reaction to Bannon's indictment.
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ALYSSA FARAH, TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, first thing I tweeted was wow because I was surprised that the Department of Justice actually moved so quickly but it's a good thing.
Congressional oversight needs to matter and some of the people currently who are defying congressional subpoenas themselves have in the past said how important the power of the subpoena is.
So you've got a lot people hiding behind what I would say is very murky executive privilege. So I would remind you, in 2018, Steve Bannon was fired by president Trump after leaking to Michael Wolff in "Fire and Fury."
And at that time Donald Trump put out a statement, saying not only did he lose mind he lost -- not only did he lose his job, he lost his mind. So why Republicans are now falling on their swords to defend this man, who perpetuated the myth that led to January 6th, who's been a thorn in the side of the party for nearly a decade now, is just beyond me.
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HOLMES: Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega cemented his power one week ago in what the Organization of American States condemns as a fraudulent election. The international outcry coming after a months- long government crackdown on Ortega's political rivals, jailing opposition leaders and ordinary citizens alike.
That action is typical of the regime's campaign to silence critics. And it doesn't stop at the country's borders. CNN's Matt Rivers explains.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He calls himself an elected president. But for many, Daniel Ortega is a dictator, whose regime gets stronger and more dangerous under his rule, a campaign of political terror, gripping the country.
Dissent can lead to house arrest, jail time; some even allege they have been tortured. It is a dangerous time in Nicaragua, something we tried to go see firsthand.
For that, we took a bus into northwestern Costa Rica to the Nicaraguan border, entering via land to try and avoid the attention of the authorities. But after 10 minutes with an immigration official, it was clear, we were not getting in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish).
RIVERS: So they just took our passports and our Mexican residency card and asked if anyone worked for CNN. Even though we did not offer that information, it is clear, they know who we are.
RIVERS (voice-over): Soon after, immigration officials denied our entry.
RIVERS: So we have been formally escorted out of the country, after waiting three hours. They told us that we needed to send a formal request to the government in order to be allowed in, not giving us any reason as to why we were not allowed in.
They won't answer our questions and so now officially we are back on the Costa Rican side. Clearly, they don't want people like us inside the country.
RIVERS (voice-over): Our experience, just a small example of the staggering level of government control faced by Nicaraguans. Since June, dozens of perceived enemies, of the regime, have been thrown into jail while countless others have been harassed and followed.
In roughly a dozen interviews CNN conducted with people inside the country, each said, most neighbors won't even talk politics anymore, fearful that they could be denounced as traitors.
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RIVERS (voice-over): One current government official would only speak to us over the phone, as he stood in an empty field, fearful of being heard.
He says, "Only Ortega's followers are the ones who can walk freely. The vast majority of, us live like hostages. Every time I leave my home, I am terrified."
We granted him anonymity because he said government forces surveil his house constantly. If they knew he was speaking to foreign journalists, he says, he would be imprisoned.
"I was afraid to speak with, you but at the same time the conviction and hope that our voice will reach others around the world makes us take the risk."
Certainly, it has reached other Nicaraguans around the world, tens of thousands of whom have fled the country since government crackdowns ramped up, in 2018. But for many, the terror of the Ortega regime does not stop at the border.
Jorge spoke to us from an undisclosed location, in Mexico, he said he was tortured by Nicaraguan police, after participating in anti government protests, in 2018, even alleging, they used a razor blade to carve the word "plomo" into his leg, a threat of future violence.
Someone, even spray-painting his home, writing, "If you (INAUDIBLE) around, you die."
He says, "People I had grown up with and known had become my enemies."
He fled to Guatemala and felt safe for a bit, until he received this photo. Someone, he says, who worked for the Nicaraguan government snapped this picture of him at the bus stop he used every day, writing, quote, "You thought the Guatemalans would take care of you?
"You and your family are going to pay in blood."
"My family and I do not feel safe, because we know what they can do. We wouldn't be the first or the last Nicaraguan to be murdered, outside the country."
He's still receiving threats In Mexico and though CNN has no way to know for certain that Nicaraguan state agents were threatening him, that is the consistent fear of so many here in San Jose, Costa Rica, where thousands of Nicaraguans have fled since 2018.
There, we met with this group of Nicaraguan exiles, each of whom say they have received threats from the Ortega regime since fleeing in the last few years. One story, from Rayza Hope stood out.
A Nicaraguan activist, she fled in 2019, after threats to her life. She now runs a flower shop in San Jose where her friend, Berenisa Zeladon (ph) a fellow Nicaraguan activist, visits her often. About one month ago, a man entered the shop, closed the door and pointed a gun.
He told us, "Stop (INAUDIBLE) around, (INAUDIBLE)."
We said, "Don't hurt us," but he started strangling me.
Rayza was pistol-whipped and knocked out, Berenisa (ph) kicked to the floor. She suffered knee fractures as a result.
Crying, she says, "The first thing I thought about, my son. This man is going to kill us."
Eventually, the man left without stealing anything. Both women filed a police report and suspect the same thing: they were targeted by Nicaraguan agents.
Nicaraguan human rights groups say they've recorded dozens of such suspected attacks in Costa Rica in recent years, though proving the Nicaragua government is behind them is near impossible.
Officially, Costa Rica's government says they found no such cases of Nicaraguan spies attacking exiles.
"We are always talking to Nicaragua," he says, "and maintaining a conversation to respect each other's sovereignty."
But not everyone in the government agrees.
RIVERS: A senior government official with deep knowledge of the situation tells CNN there are in fact Nicaraguan intelligence operatives, working right now here in Costa Rica, including those that target Nicaraguan exiles, adding the number of operatives working here has increased since Nicaraguans started arriving en masse back in 2018.
The government, the source says, is hesitant to speak out publicly on the issue, fearing it could damage diplomatic relations at a tenuous time.
RIVERS (voice-over): On Sunday, protests were held in San Jose, people chanting and waving the Nicaraguan flag.
But in Nicaragua, things were much quieter. No protests are allowed these days. But it does not mean that they are not happening. CNN spoke to several people, who said they would not vote, a form of quiet protest, they said, refusing to participate in the coronation of a dictator -- Matt Rivers, CNN, San Jose, Costa Rica.
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HOLMES: The U.N. climate conference in Scotland, is over. But no one really cheering the final agreement. A climate expert, offering his views on what was and was, not accomplished, when we come back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
With each passing day, residents of a coastal community in Nigeria are watching rising sea levels destroy their homes and way of life. Some blame climate change, others blame poor urban planning. CNN's Stephanie Busari reports from Lagos.
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STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN.COM SUPERVISING EDITOR, AFRICA (voice-over): The low lying community of Okun Alfa in Lagos sits along Nigeria's Atlantic coast. Erosion along the shoreline is nothing new. But the problem is getting worse.
Over time, residents say, they watch their ancestral homes and vital public infrastructure disappear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This health center was washed away about 10 years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was washed away. (INAUDIBLE) have anywhere as a health center or a place, when if it is, something happened that you can rush a patient (INAUDIBLE).
BUSARI: For decades, this community in Lagos suffered from flooding and erosion due to rising sea levels. But they say these breakers put here about 10 years ago have helped to solve some of this issue. But still, they remain worried.
BUSARI (voice-over): Climate change is one culprit but some also are pointing their fingers elsewhere.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Eko Atlantic is raising the standard for quality of life in Nigeria.
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BUSARI (voice-over): Touted as the next economic capital of Africa, Eko Atlantic is a new city being built on 6.5 million square meters of land reclaimed from the ocean bed in the Victoria Island district of Lagos.
The eroding coastline is protected by an 8.5-kilometer great wall of Lagos. But the surrounding community says the construction has made things worse for them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the project is about to commence, none of us are called. They have to call us. We have to say our own certain experience that we have.
BUSARI (voice-over): The company behind the project insists it is not to blame and goes so far as to say that the Victoria Island area of Lagos would not exist without the Eko Atlantic project.
DAVID FRAME, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SOUTH ENEGYNX NIGERIA: A contract between ourselves and the Lagos state government to effectively arrest the erosion of our beach (ph) that was threatening the very existence of Victoria Island and, in turn, find a permanent solution. That permanent solution is Eko Atlantic City.
BUSARI: But they're saying this has caused it to worsen.
FRAME: Well, that is not the case.
BUSARI (voice-over): But that is the case and environmental advocates say --
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OWOYEMI WAHAB ELEGBELEYE, UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS: If the people of Okun Alfa or any other place on the island claims that it is because of the construction of Eko Atlantic City bringing about flooding in their own areas, they cannot be wrong because the water will definitely find its level in other areas.
BUSARI (voice-over): Where that water does go will impact those in this area forever.
BUSARI: Are you worried that this community will sink underwater?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water has carried a lot of the community away. We are crying that if this is happening, is going to demolish the village.
BUSARI (voice-over): Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos, Nigeria.
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HOLMES: Long and tense negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, finally led to a climate agreement everyone could endorse but few were completely happy with. A last-minute change on coal weakened the language.
The British official presiding over the conference, in fact, became emotional after approving that change and then apologizing for the way it happened.
Outside, protesters judged the conference a failure, holding mock headstones of past COP meetings.
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HOLMES: Joining me now from Glasgow is Alden Meyer. He's a senior associate at the climate change think tank E3G.
Thanks for coming back on again. Let's face it, the climate doesn't care if there's a consensus communique, something every country can agree on, if that agreement is not enough to meet the climate crisis and the immediacy of it.
Is the outcome of COP26 anywhere near enough?
And can nations deliver promises they made when so often they have not?
ALDEN MEYER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, THIRD GENERATION ENVIRONMENTALISM: Well, you are right. The atmosphere responds to emissions, not speeches and treaties and protocols and rhetoric.
So this was a good step. It sets up a process over the next two years, when countries are expected to come back and put more ambition on the table.
In the first week of this meeting in Glasgow, we did see some significant announcements on deforestation, on methane, on cars, on power plants. And they add up to something but nowhere near what we need to cut emissions almost in half by the end of this decade. That is a gargantuan task.
HOLMES: What's interesting, because much was made over fossil fuels as a driver of climate change would be included in the communique for the first time. And everyone celebrated that it was.
But given the indisputable fact that they are driving the crisis, what does it say about these COPs and what nations are actually willing to actually do, that it's even a matter of debate whether it's included?
Surely the most staggering thing is that coal and fossil fuels were not mentioned in every COP?
MEYER: Well, that is the amazing thing and it's no accident. The oil producing countries, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, some of the big coal producing countries have banded together since the beginning of this process to try to weaken it, slow it down, undermine it, et cetera. So it's amazing that we got the language in the agreement on coal and on phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies.
Just on subsidies, we are still spending something like $500 billion a year globally to pay people to burn more fossil fuels and pollute the atmosphere. That is insane; we need to phase that out.
HOLMES: If a young person who will, of course, be living with the worsening effects of climate change looked at this COP and what has come of it in terms of substance, would that young person have cause to be angry or fearful?
MEYER: Oh, definitely, yes. I mean, the disconnect between the negotiations process and the finger-pointing and blame-casting with the outside reality of the climate emergency that is upon us is just striking.
And it's not just young people who are angry; all of us are angry that this process is not moving more quickly. That is the difficulty when you're trying to get 196 countries on board. You operate by consensus.
When you have countries like Saudi Arabia, Australia, Russia, India in the case of the coal language yesterday, that want to slow down the process.
HOLMES: If the current evidence of the climate crisis isn't enough to push the powerful to take the required steps, what would it take to get them to that point, do you think?
MEYER: Well, I think the youth movement is having a powerful impact there, because they are children. And they have to respond to their children and think about their future.
And I think that has moved some of them to take a more expansive view. But the reality is there are very powerful interests that like the status quo the way it is. They make a lot of money off selling oil, gas and coal and they're doing everything they can to slow down this process.
So that is understandable, that's human nature, go for the short term. But the kids are thinking about the long term. And I think they're starting to move some of the leaders.
HOLMES: Yes, when you think about it, how frustrating is it for people like you to hear countries like India and China say --
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HOLMES: -- hey, we need fossil fuels like coal for growth and national wealth while those fuels put and continue to put the planet in such peril?
Everyone wants growth and prosperity but at what cost is the question?
What would you say to these countries that say, hey, we need this?
MEYER: Well, it's understandable they want to develop their economies and they should. The good news is that the price of the alternatives to coal and oil and gas have plummeted since Paris was negotiated six years ago, coming down 90 percent for solar photovoltaics, LED light bulbs, hybrid vehicles, et cetera.
So it's an amazing time for the clean solutions and, meanwhile, the impacts of climate change are mounting and are getting very expensive. So if you do the climate balance sheet the right way, it's much cheaper to grow your economy in a clean way than the dirty way that the industrialized countries did a century ago.
HOLMES: Yes, and as we discussed here yesterday, this all comes back to talk versus action, self-interest versus what is required to save the planet.
And when you think about global greenhouse emissions rebounding completely after the coronavirus pandemic, what does that say going forward about efforts to cut emissions in a substantial way, when they're already back up from pre-pandemic? MEYER: Well, it means that not enough countries have changed the policies that are driving those emissions. We have to be real here. This is a transformational change we're talking about in the next eight years or so. Incrementalism is not going to work.
So you have to change the tax codes, regulations, building standards, your car standards and that takes time. And there's a lot of powerful interests try to slow that down. So the good news is I think we have woken up to the urgency of this crisis. Countries have committed to come back next year at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt with some deliverables in terms of increases in ambition.
The proof will be in the pudding, though.
Will they bring back the concrete policies and actions that we need to really drive emissions reductions on the ground?
HOLMES: The clock is ticking, as you've been saying. Alden Meyer, thanks so much, really appreciate your time.
MEYER: Glad to be with you.
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HOLMES: Well, as experts and activists look for ways to stop climate change or slow it down, at least here on Earth, astronauts have been getting a unique and disturbing view of the problem from space.
Now there is hope that some of the technology used up there could lead to some solutions down here.
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HOLMES (voice-over): A view with a purpose: scientists say data collected from satellites and the International Space Station could provide insight and potential solutions to some of the planet's most critical problems, like climate change.
NASA recently revealed cutting-edge imagery from its Landsat 9 satellite, part of a joint program with the U.S. Geological Survey, which has captured images of the Earth's surface for nearly 50 years.
But experts say the details with this latest technology of coastlines and forest canopies could help officials track extreme climate events, like wildfires, melting glaciers and tropical deforestation.
European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who just returned from the International Space Station, is part of NASA's SpaceX Crew 2 mission, said he saw firsthand how urgent the climate crisis has become.
THOMAS PESQUET, EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ASTRONAUT: We had unbelievable sights of entire regions, entire states in the U.S., entire countries, covered in smoke and ashes. That was actually pretty painful to watch.
HOLMES (voice-over): The Biden administration wants to increase NASA's budget in 2022 by a $1.5 billion. NASA administrator Bill Nelson says he envisions the agency will, one day, have a command center to monitor key data like sea levels, weather patterns and toxic emissions.
BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We are exploring the idea of a climate and mission control, just like you have seen in the launches and since you've seen, since the old Apollo days, a mission control for climate change.
HOLMES (voice-over): NASA says many innovations that were designed for spaceflight have already helped reduce energy consumption back on Earth, like allowing machinery like escalators and elevators to power down when not in use or upturning the ends of airplane wings to reduce fuel usage, which reduces CO2 emissions.
Astronauts on the ISS grew Hatch green chiles from seeds in space. The experiment not only providing fresh food for the crew but also showing ways vegetables can grow where there is limited water, which could be useful as heat waves increasingly damage crops back on Earth.
Researchers hope the sky isn't the limit, how space can help the study and mitigation of the effects of climate change.
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HOLMES: One recent space traveler says the stakes couldn't be higher for what could be learned from this final frontier.
WILLIAM SHATNER, ACTOR AND ASTRONAUT: But until you are up there, you see the blackness, the starkness. But in that moment, is blackness and death. In this moment down here, as we look down, there's life and nurturing.
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HOLMES: Well, it has been almost two weeks since doctors told her to rest following a one-night stint in the hospital but the public should get their first glimpse of the British monarch later today. We'll have a report after the break.
And also nearly three months after the Taliban seized Kabul, the scores of Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort are now facing danger and even death for doing so. A CNN investigation into the high price of escape. That's when we come back.
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HOLMES: Queen Elizabeth II is expected to make her first public appearance in several weeks later today. The 95-year-old British monarch will attend the U.K.'s annual Remembered Day service in London. Doctors advised the queen to take rest nearly 2 weeks ago after she spent the night a night in the hospital for what a spokesman described as preliminary investigations.
To Shanghai, China, where the world's largest metro train system is picking up speed in going green. The switch may be a rough ride for a system that carries more than 3 billion passengers every year. But as David Culver reports, officials still believe they're on track to meet their goals.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shanghai, China's financial hub, its bright lights and bustling streets showing a constant consumption of energy.
Keeping a population of more than 24 million people on the go, the city's metro rail system.
CULVER: Shanghai metro is currently the biggest in the world and it's one of the busiest.
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CULVER (voice-over): With 19 lines spread throughout this metropolis, 460 stations and more than 10 million rides daily, built nearly 30 years ago, Shanghai's metro was not designed with renewable energy in mind.
Like much of China, it's powered mostly by coal. But with China pledging to become carbon neutral by 2060, nearly every industry is now rethinking their power source.
Metro planners decided to look up for their energy, harnessing solar power by using the many train garages and installing panels on their barren roofs, wasted space finding a new purpose.
CULVER: What you're looking at here, this is only the beginning. This pioneer solar project is being expanded to more metro stations across this city.
MU ZHENYING, SHANGHAI METRO NEW ENERGY COMPANY LTD (through translator): As we install more solar panels its power generation capacity will keep on growing.
CULVER (voice-over): These rooftop solar panels may not be generating a massive amount of electricity just yet. But as China races to fulfill carbon promises in the near future, every little bit helps.
While China still may be the biggest carbon polluter in the world, it is also the largest investor, manufacturer and employer of solar and wind power. President Xi Jinping has proclaimed "green is gold," making renewable energies vital if China hopes to meet their carbon reduction promises.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: China, I think, over a very short period of time, mastered the clean tech sector, in particular wind and solar. We managed to build roughly the renewable energy of Germany in a single year. This will be the pace over the next 10 years or so. And in fact we actually need to move even faster in that regard.
CULVER (voice-over): Shanghai's green metro initiative is a part of that. And it is likely to be replicated in dozens of other cities across China.
MU (through translator): So if each company in every industry and every citizen takes one small step, collectively, it will be a big step toward a green and low carbon future for the city.
CULVER (voice-over): Countering China's massive emissions will be challenging. This project just one of the many major investments needed now, so as to lay the tracks for a greener future in China and beyond -- David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.
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HOLMES: Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HolmesCNN. Stay with us. "MARKETPLACE EUROPE" starts after a short break.
