Return to Transcripts main page
First Move with Julia Chatterley
The U.S. Welcomes Vaccinated Travelers; Tesla Shares Slump after Twitter Votes for Elon Musk to Sell; China's Tech Clamp Down Hurt SoftBank's Investment fund Earnings; Former U.S. President Barack Obama Speaks at COP 26. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired November 08, 2021 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:27]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE and here is your need to know.
Reopening rejoice. The U.S. welcomes vaccinated travelers, finally.
Poll plunge. Tesla shares slump after Twitter votes for Elon Musk to sell.
And vision vanquished. China's tech clamp down hurt SoftBank's investment fund earnings.
It's Monday, let's make a move
A warm welcome to FIRST MOVE as we approach liftoff in another action packed week. As always, we have no shortage of goods to declare.
Transatlantic tourists so once again allowed to visit the United States by air. Elon Musk could hit sell because of a Twitter questionnaire.
Infrastructure is agreed in D.C., but a wider stimulus bill, still not there, and Wall Street remains on a record breaking tear. That's it for the
rhyming today.
The Dow and the S&P is set to hit fresh record highs after Friday's gains helped along by strong U.S. jobs numbers, new fiscal stimulus, of course,
and encouraging data from Pfizer on its new COVID antiviral pill -- reopening please -- like airlines all benefited and are benefiting again
today.
Domestic recovery sensitive stocks, including small caps are still outperforming. The Russell 2000 rose nearly one and a half percent on
Friday to fresh records, too. Look at those recent gains.
Tesla in the meantime acting like a dead battery, down around 4.3 percent premarket as you can see, and that is weighing on both the NASDAQ and the
S&P 500.
Musk's weekend musings involved whether to sell 10 percent of his Tesla stock to pay some taxes. Twitter said "do it," investors probably thinking,
"Do shut up, please."
Now nothing could silence the protesters calling for more climate action in Glasgow this weekend, too, and on the agenda today, former President Barack
Obama will take the stage. You're looking at it there. We'll take you there the moment that speech begins.
For now, let's get to our drivers or should we say high fliers.
The United States reopening its borders to fully vaccinated international travelers after 20 long months. Melissa Bell is live in Paris for us.
Melissa, I'm sure a lot of people are very excited about this moment, but it could bring some significant delays, at least in the short term.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, because when you consider the impact on the airline industry, we've got to remember announced by
Donald Trump back in March 2020 that had taken the world by surprise at closing the American borders to so many international travelers, the impact
of that and the length of the closure has now gone on for some 20 months, Julia, meant that the airlines are going to take a while to get things
ramped up again. People of course, working for immigration, those kinds of controls will also take some time. And so there are these warnings that
there could be delays.
But of course, so much relief from the travelers themselves who spend the morning at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in the terminal where Air France
has its international front flights. And of course, before the pandemic, Julia, transatlantic travel represented 40 percent of their long haul
flights. It gives you an idea of just how important it is that this should be able possible once again, for foreign vaccinated travelers, not just
those hoping to get back to family, but those hoping to transit through the United States to get through other places.
And so for the first time in a long time, Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle Airport felt remarkably packed. We talked to a bunch of people who booked
that flight, the very first thing to get on to try and make sure they could get to their back to their families they had been separated from for so
long. Now, of course, in the other direction, Americans have been able to come to Europe since June and Europeans, you'll remember, Julia, had
demanded reciprocity. It's taken many months, in fact, for us to get it -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, as someone who has not been back home since December 2019, I am equally as excited, I think as those people to be able to get
back and forth. Were they expecting delays, the people that you were speaking to, Melissa, in Paris because it has been delegated to the
airlines to do all the verification and the checking of vaccination certificates, of the tests? It's not Customs and Immigration in the United
States that is dealing with it, and we've all waited hours in the past, never mind during COVID.
BELL: That's right, Julia, and what we did hear when we spoke to people who were queuing, they said, you can't simply hop on a plane as you used
to, you're quite right, the Americans are requiring not only that foreign travelers are vaccinated, but also that they have had a PCR test.
So, of course this is all paperwork that you have to prepare in advance. People that come nice and early for their flights. The one that we watched
take off to JFK did leave with half an hour's delay, but it is also at the other end of the American end that they expect and that they're warning
that there could be some delays, especially in transit sites, because again, you're having to get a whole bunch of systems operational again,
after 20 months of them, essentially not quite being closed down, but certainly tuned down to the very few travelers who could make the journey
back and forth -- Americans, for instance, who could head home wherever they wanted to, all those who had exemptions.
[09:05:30]
BELL: But a fraction of the travelers who are now making their way back. So yes, delays, extra paperwork, much less simplicity than there was before
the pandemic, and yet a sense of some return to normality now that, at last, foreigners who are vaccinated can at least get back to the United
States as they used to -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, big smiles all round. Melissa Bell, thank you so much for that.
And for more or on this, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will join us in just a few moments time to talk through their
preparations. Let's move on.
Tesla hits the skids. More than $60 billion has been wiped off its market value -- at least premarket. That's after millions of Elon Musk's followers
voted in favor of him selling off 10 percent of his stock in the company.
Christine Romans joins me now. Christine, only in Musk's metaverse would we be discussing this, but of course, here we are.
Now, those that follow this stock relatively closely would know he does have a big tax bill coming up. But in light of recent conversations, the
billionaire tax, very Musk-like to ask Twitter what they should -- what they think he should be doing here.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is so interesting. Three and a half million people voted. I mean, there were a
lot of people who weighed -- I should say three and a half million votes, potentially. I don't know if what kind of -- whether some people voted
twice or not. But look, that was a lot of people weighing in.
And it was actually so interesting, too. The senator, Ron Wyden, who is the Senate Finance Committee Chairman, he actually said, "Whether the world's
richest man pays taxes shouldn't be determined by a Twitter poll," because that got a lot of attention as well that -- what's he doing asking Twitter
whether or not he should be selling the stock?
Remember, it wasn't very long ago -- a few years ago that he was chastised by the S.E.C. for musing about taking the company private via Twitter.
There's just no other business leader in the world who is so cavalier with important things that affect the stock price like Elon Musk, and that stock
a down this morning on the idea that he could sell some, and it is not clear when and if he will actually do it or not.
But he said, if Twitter voted for it, he would do it.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, you've talked to the speculation now. Senator Ron Wyden himself voting two million times there, Nancy Pelosi also, on Twitter
saying basically -- I'm joking, by the way, everybody.
But it does follow, and you and I discussed it last week on the show, the conversation that was had on CNN with the World Food Programme suggesting
that actually some of these people could make a huge dent in challenges like hunger around the world with just a small fraction of their wealth.
Do we know any more about whether or not Elon Musk has spoken to the World Food Programme? Because he came out and said, look, if you can provide a
comprehensive plan, I'll be willing to give you some money.
ROMANS: Yes, a comprehensive plan on this Twitter thread. And again, using Twitter sort of as this as this platform for him. You know, I don't know if
they have spoken to one another or not here. I do know that as of Sunday, his net worth was $338 billion dollars. His net worth has only gone up
since the leader of the World Food Programme said he could afford $6 billion to kick in -- it was you know, even less than one day's earnings on
rallying Tesla shares.
But it does show you just how big a cash pile the net worth of this founder and CEO is. And it also, I think, highlights the whole conversation about
inequality in the United States and how we tax earnings. You know, Elon Musk doesn't have earnings. He doesn't take earnings. He is self-made
completely, and he has this big -- all of his net worth is in his stock. Right?
And so if you put in a tax -- an income tax on rich people of the United States, it wouldn't hit him if it were on earnings. So, that's why this big
discussion about billionaires tax comes in and looking at people like Elon Musk.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. And let's be clear, as well, call me a cynic. But there is no PR, no promotions for Tesla cars other than the PR that Elon Musk and
Tesla do themselves. So with just 0.01 percent of those three and a half million people, assuming they're all individuals, buys a Tesla car, I make
that 35,000 car sales. Nice.
Christine Romans, cynic. Thank you so much for that.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
CHATTERLEY: A blizzard of bad news for SoftBank. China's tech crackdown hitting the company like a winter storm says Softbank CEO. The company sank
to $3.5 billion quarterly loss as the value of stakes in Chinese companies like DiDi, Alibaba, and Coupang plunged.
[09:10:05]
CHATTERLEY: Selina Wang joins me now. There are silver linings here though when the value of your stock holdings fall and your own stock price
therefore falls. You can scoop up a huge chunk of them relatively cheaply, at least in the companies' minds, and that's what they've said they're
doing -- Selina.
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Julia. That's right. Announcing this major share buyback program of $8.8 billion over the next 12 months,
SoftBank's CEO Masayoshi son saying that this represents a buying opportunity, and they are still going to leave enough money for other
investments.
But Julia, this has been such a rough quarter that Masayoshi Son opened up the earnings presentation with a video of a blizzard saying that SoftBank
is stuck in the snow storm. They posted a loss of $3.5 billion for the quarter, but the company's net asset value, which Masa Son has said is a
more important indicator of the firm's performance, that fell by more than $54 billion.
And the big reason behind that, Julia, is this big regulatory crackdown on the technology industry in China that has hit SoftBank's China investments
incredibly hard. Alibaba has long been SoftBank's most valuable holding and that stock fell by about 35 percent during the quarter.
This also hit the Vision Fund massively, which had a loss of about $10.5 billion, and that was largely because of Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi,
which had its shares crash after Chinese authorities probed the ride- hailing companies data practices and banned it from Chinese app stores. But in addition to the China investments, some of its bets outside of China,
including an e-commerce company in South Korea, Coupang have also faltered.
So both on the China front and outside, it has not been very successful this past quarter -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: No. He is good with these visualizations though, isn't he? I mean, it was the goose that lays the golden eggs before. Currently, we
can't see the goose laying the golden eggs because it's covered by a blizzard. Did he give any sense of when the blizzard would clear? And there
has been some speculation that -- to go to our original point about them scooping up what they now see as undervalued shares in SoftBank, how close
they are whether even there's a discussion being had about just taking the whole thing private.
WANG: Well, in terms of Masayoshi Son, he is staying optimistic as ever, as you say, referring to these companies that are going to go public as the
golden goose is, and when it comes to China, he remained optimistic saying that there are still a lot of artificial intelligence companies being
formed in China, and that while he is concerned about the regulatory crackdown, they are still going to continue those investments.
He was also very optimistic about India's Fintech company, Paytm, which they've invested in. That company is set to start trading next week. But
critically here, many investors are noticing that the Vision Fund, pretty much every company that has gone public over this past year, they have lost
money since listing and that poor track record has investors questioning, Julia, whether this cycle of investing in companies, taking them public,
and then getting that money back, whether it's a broken model for SoftBank.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, whether they were overvalued when they were private and then you list them and they lose value. But to your point as well, we have
had a real storm in terms of Chinese regulation and scrutiny on some of these companies. And these are just market to market losses after all.
We shall see. Selina Wang, thank you so much for that.
Okay, let me bring you up to speed now with some of the other stories making headlines around the world.
A lawsuit has been filed against organizers of the Astroworld Music Festival, where at least eight people died in a stampede. The plaintiff
says he suffered serious injuries when the crowd knocked him to the ground and trampled him at the concert Friday night in Houston, Texas.
He is accusing rapper, Travis Scott and concert promoters of ignoring safety risks.
CNN's Rosa Flores joins us now from Houston. Rosa, great to have you with us. What more do we know and what were the safety measures in place?
Because clearly they seem to be inadequate.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Julia. Yes, absolutely. And that's exactly what authorities here are looking at. They're looking at the site
and security plans, trying to figure out if those were adequate, or if they were adequate and followed or perhaps just not followed.
They are trying to figure out what happened and they're also trying to figure out why there was this mass compression of the crowd towards the
stage, and the other layer and level to this investigation is that it is now a criminal investigation.
This, after a security officer reported that someone pricked his neck, he went unconscious. He was administered Narcan and he revived, and that other
individuals on site according to authorities were also administered Narcan.
Now, here is the timeline based on what authorities know. At about 9:15 on Friday, there were about 50,000 people here at this concert and that's when
the crowd started to compress towards the stage.
[09:15:09]
FLORES: By 9:38, it had turned into a mass casualty event with one officer saying that there were multiple people on the ground needing medical
attention, including some in cardiac arrest. And by 10:10, that concert had been stopped.
Now, I talked to concert goers who say that it was extremely traumatizing to be there. They say that at points, they couldn't control their bodies
because it was just a massive wave. Take a listen in what they have said.
CHATTERLEY: Okay, President Obama -- former President Obama is speaking at COP 26, and I want to let you listen in to his speech. Rosa, thank you once
again.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you so much. Thank you.
Hello, Glasgow. Thank you very much. Thank you, please.
It is wonderful to be back in the U.K. It is -- let's face it, wonderful to be traveling anywhere these days. And thank you, Sheila, for that
outstanding introduction and for all the work that you are doing in a part of the world that is feeling the effects of climate change right now.
Thank you for making what sometimes can seem a bunch of abstract numbers painfully, immediately real. So, we're very grateful for her.
I am a private citizen now. So, trips like this feel a little bit different than they used to.
I don't get invited to the big group photo. Traffic is a thing again. Music doesn't play when I walk into the room.
On the positive side, I can give a speech like this without wearing a tie and not create a scandal back home -- I hope.
But even though I'm not required to attend Summits like this anymore, old habits die hard, and when the issue at hand is the health of our planet,
and the world our children and our grandchildren will inherit, then you will have a hard time keeping me awake, and that's why I'm here today to
talk about what's happened in the six years since I spoke to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, and to talk about the steps we
need to take if we want to keep doing big things.
Because when it comes to climate, time really is running out.
You heard the same message from world leaders last week, and now that they've left, here is what we can report. Meaningful progress has been made
since Paris, and the agreements made here in Glasgow, thanks to so many of you, including my friend, John Kerry here --
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: Who is tireless and his team -- thanks to your efforts here in Glasgow, we see the promise of further progress. What is also true is that
collectively and individually, we are still falling short. We have not done nearly enough to address this crisis. We are going to have to do more. And
whether that happens or not to a large degree is going to depend on you, not just those of you in this room, but anybody who is watching or reading
a transcript of what I say here today.
That was true six years ago as well. But in Paris, our goal was to turn progress into an enduring framework that would give the world confidence in
a low carbon future. An agreement where countries would update their emissions targets on a regular basis.
An agreement that would help developing nations get the resources they need to skip the dirty phase of development and help those nations that are most
vulnerable to climate change get the resources they need to adapt. An agreement that would give businesses and investors the certainty that the
global economy is on a firm path towards a clean and sustainable future.
[09:20:01]
OBAMA: In other words, our hope was to create an agreement that gave our planet a fighting chance. That was our ambition, and by some measures, the
agreement has been a success.
For the first time, leaders of nearly 200 nations, large and small, developed and developing, made a commitment to work together to confront a
threat to the people of all nations. And that same proof that for all the divisions in our world, when a crisis threatens all of us, we can come
together to address it.
At the time, we also believed that if enough national governments showed they were serious about climate, then other institutions, particularly in
the private sector, would start raising their sights as well. And over the last six years, that is what's happened.
Today, more than one-fifth of the world's largest companies have set net zero emissions targets. Not just because it's the right thing to do for the
environment, but in many cases, because it makes sense for their bottom line.
More than 700 cities in more than 50 countries have pledged to cut their emissions in half by the end of the decade and reach net zero by 2050.
About a third of the global banking sector has agreed to align their work with the Paris Agreement, so that's meaningful.
Now, back in the United States, of course, some of our progress stalled when my successor decided to unilaterally pull out of the Paris Agreement
in his first year in office. I wasn't real happy about that, and yet, the determination of our state and local governments, along with the
regulations and investment that my administration had already put in place, allowed our country to keep moving forward, despite hostility from the
White House.
The $90 billion investment that we made in 2009 helped to jumpstart the clean energy industry in the United States and markets adapted and so did
consumers. And even when the Trump administration rolled back emissions requirements for automakers, along with regulatory changes and efficiency
standards, many businesses chose to stay the course. They kept reducing emissions. They continued the transition to electric vehicles, and energy
saving appliances.
The ball had been rolling, and it didn't stop. And meanwhile, Science and Technology continued to advance.
So today, the price of solar and wind energy has dropped to the point where in some places, clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels. Around the
world, scientists and entrepreneurs are integrating abundant renewable energy, more powerful batteries, and breakthroughs in fields like synthetic
biology to invent a better future that is healthier and more affordable. That's all good news for the planet, and it is also good news for people
looking for a job.
In the U.S. alone, more than three million people now work in clean energy related jobs. That is more than the number of people currently employed by
the entire fossil fuel industry.
So despite four years of active hostility toward climate science, coming from the very top of our Federal government, the American people managed to
still meet our original commitment under the Paris Agreement; and not only that, but the rest of the world stayed in the deal.
And now, with President Biden and his administration rejoining the agreement, the U.S. government is once again, engaged and prepared to take
a leadership role. And everybody who has been watching John Kerry run around here knows that we take that role seriously.
As the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the U.S. has to lead. We have enormous responsibilities. And obviously, we still have a lot
of work to do.
But last week, Congress passed President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill that will, among other things, create manufacturing -- create jobs
manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines and batteries and electric vehicles and build out the first ever national network of charging stations
so families can travel across the U.S. in electric vehicles.
[09:25:14]
OBAMA: And I'm confident that a version of President Biden's Build Back Better Bill will pass through Congress in the coming next few weeks. And
here is what it will mean when that bill does pass.
That legislation will devote over half a trillion dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over a billion metric tons by the end of the
decade, at least 10 times more than any legislation previously passed by Congress.
Along the way, it will reduce consumer energy costs, it will invest in a clean energy economy, it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and it
will set the United States on course to meet its new climate targets, achieving a 50 to 52 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below
2005 levels by 2030.
So the U.S. is back, and in moving more boldly, the U.S. is not alone.
Earlier this year, the U.K. government, our host, announced a plan to cut emissions by almost 80 percent by 2035. This summer, the European Union put
themselves on a path to carbon neutrality by 2050. Korea passed a Carbon Neutrality Act in September that requires the government to cut greenhouse
gas emissions 35 percent or more by 2030. The Canadian government has laid out a path to carbon neutrality by 2050 with milestones to hit along the
way.
So, Paris showed the world that progress is possible, created a framework. Important work was done there and important work has been done here. That
is the good news.
Now, for the bad news. We are nowhere near where we need to be yet.
For starters, despite the progress that Paris represented, most countries have failed to meet the action plans that they set six years ago, and the
consequences of not moving fast enough are becoming more apparent all the time.
Last month, a study found that 85 percent of the global population has experienced weather events that were more severe because of climate change.
Stronger storms, longer heat waves, more intense flooding, crippling droughts, parts of the world are becoming more dangerous to live in
triggering new migration patterns and worsening conflict around the globe.
It's one of the reasons why the U.S. Pentagon and other U.S. agencies have said that climate change poses a National Security threat for the U.S. and
for everyone else.
But not only did we not hit all of the targets that were pledged in Paris. But remember, Paris was always supposed to be a beginning, not an endpoint
of our joint effort to control climate change.
Back in 2015, we knew that even if the commitments made as a part of the Paris Agreement were fully met, we would still fall short of our goal of
keeping global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and that's why Paris was designed to be a framework for countries to constantly
ratchet up their ambitions as they got more resources and as technology reduced the cost of transitioning to a clean energy economy.
So we come down here to Glasgow, and just was as true with the Paris Agreement, there is good news and bad news about what has happened here
this past week.
The good news, in large part because of the efforts of the people in this room, the hours of work that you spent with you know, weak coffee and bad
food, and feeling sleepy, because of you, countries around the world are recognizing this as a decisive decade to avoid a climate disaster and are
setting some really important goals for 2030.
[09:20:03]
OBAMA: More than a hundred countries this past week have committed to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. As all of you know curbing
methane emissions is currently the single fastest and most effective way to limit warming.
More than a hundred countries have also promised to stop and reverse deforestation by the end of 2030. Businesses from around the world, name
brands, some of the biggest businesses on this planet have agreed to help create a market for the technologies we need to transition to clean energy.
Here in Glasgow, nations have also committed to help poorer countries move away from fossil fuels and deal with the effects of climate change.
President Biden announced that the U.S. will be quadrupling its annual climate finance pledge over the next few years to $11 billion, including $3
billion dedicated to helping vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
And the U.S. along with 20 other countries agreed to stop publicly financing international fossil fuel development with limited exceptions. So
these are significant accomplishments. They are hard won commitments, you should be proud of yourselves and we need to celebrate those commitments
even as we demand that the signatories to these commitments actually follow through.
We have to track it. They're not self-executing. They're going to require effort.
But let's assume that we actually deliver, that's significant. But once again, we also have to acknowledge that this progress is partial. Most
nations have failed to be as ambitious as they need to be. The escalation, the ratcheting up of ambition that we anticipated in Paris six years ago,
has not been uniformly realized.
I have to confess, it was particularly discouraging to see the leaders of two of the world's largest emitters, China and Russia, declined to even
attend the proceedings. And their national plans so far reflect what appears to be a dangerous lack of urgency or willingness to maintain the
status quo on the part of those governments, and that's a shame.
We need advanced economies like the US and Europe leading on this issue. But you know the facts, we also need China and India leading on this issue.
We need Russia leading on this issue. Just as we need Indonesia and South Africa and Brazil, leading on this issue. We can't afford anybody on the
sidelines.
I recognize we're living in a moment when international cooperation has waned, a moment of greater geopolitical tension and stress, in part because
of the pandemic, in part because of the rise of nationalism and tribal impulses around the world. And yes, in part because of a lack of leadership
on America's part for four years on a host of multilateral issues. I understand that it's harder to get international cooperation. There are
more global tensions.
But there is one thing that should transcend our day-to-day politics and normal geopolitics, and that is climate change. It's not just that we can't
afford to go backward. We can't afford to stay where we are.
The world has to step up and it has to step up now. So, how is that going to happen? How do we close the gap between what's necessary for our
survival and what seems politically possible right now?
I confess, I don't have all the answers, as I'm sure is true for all of you out there, those of you who are steeped in this work who are far more
expert than me.
There are times where I feel discouraged. There are times where the future seems somewhat bleak. There are times where I am doubtful that humanity can
get its act together before it's too late and images of dystopia start creeping into my dreams.
[09:35:13]
OBAMA: And yet, whenever I feel such despondency, I remind myself that cynicism is the recourse of cowards. We can't afford hopelessness. Instead,
we are going to have to muster the will and the passion and the activism of citizens, pushing governments, companies and everyone else to meet this
challenge. That's what allowed the U.S. to do its part over the last few years to meet our climate goals, even when we didn't have much leadership
on it.
It wasn't just elected officials or CEOs doing the right thing, it was ordinary Americans making their voices heard, making it clear we need to
solve this problem, regardless of the obstacles. People who organized and educated others in their communities, people who put pressure on businesses
and governments to do better, people who turned their passion into votes. That's the kind of commitment we're going to need going forward.
Because let's face it, this is not just about raw numbers. This is not just about science. This is about politics. It's about culture. It's about
morality. It's about the human dynamic.
How do we work together to get a big thing done? And it's about participation and power.
Thinking back on my own experience as President, I would have had the power to do even more to fight climate change during my time in office, if I'd
had a stable congressional majority that was willing and eager to take action. And for the bulk of my presidency, I didn't have that majority.
Gaining such majorities require an engaged citizenry, willing to do what it takes to reward politicians who take this problem seriously, and send out
of office those who don't.
I am convinced that President Biden's Build Back Better Bill will be historic, and a huge plus for U.S. action on climate change. But keep in
mind, Joe Biden want to do even more. He is constrained by the absence of a robust majority that's needed to make that happen. Both of us have been
constrained in large part by the fact that one of our two major parties has decided not only to sit on the sidelines, but express active hostility
toward climate science and make climate change a partisan issue.
Perhaps some of you have a similar dynamic in your own countries, although generally speaking, the United States seems to have a more vigorous
opposition to climate than in many other places.
But my broader point is, that's got to stop. Saving the planet isn't a partisan issue. I welcome any faction within the Republican Party in the
United States that takes climate change seriously, and that may be a rare breed right now, but keep in mind, such Republican-elected officials used
to be commonplace, used to exist.
President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, was one of the first U.S. Presidents to officially recognize the threat of climate change. He was a
signatory to the Rio Accord.
If we are going to act on the scale that's required, climate change can't be seen anywhere in the world as just an opportunity to score political
points.
And for those listening back home in the U.S., let me say this, it doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat if your Florida house is
flooded by rising seas, or your crops fail in the Dakotas or your California house is burning down, major physics, science do not care about
party affiliation.
[09:40:12]
OBAMA: And what is true in the United States is true in every nation. We don't just need the Democrats or the Green Party or progressives to be
working together on this existential problem. We need everybody, even if we disagree on other things, and what's also true around the world, for the
U.S., true in all the countries represented here, is that the most important energy in this movement is coming from young people.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: And the reason is simple, they have more stake in this fight than anybody else. And that's why I want to spend the rest of my time today
talking directly to young people who may be watching and wondering what they can do to help.
I am the father of two daughters in their early 20s. So, I have some sense of all the stuff that gets thrown at young people these days. It's not
always easy being young today.
And for more most of your lives, if you're in that generation, you've been bombarded with warnings about what the future will look like if you don't
address climate change. And meanwhile, you've grown up watching many of the adults who are in positions to do something about it, either act like the
problem doesn't exist or refuse to make the hard decisions necessary to address it, and that's a source of real anxiety and real anger at older
people.
And some of you no doubt wonder if you'll be able to be safe in the community where you've grown up. Whether you'll have to raise your own kids
in a world ravaged by extreme weather and climate migration and conflict.
As one 16-year-old said, for us, the destruction of the planet is personal. And that's why my message to young people begins with acknowledging, you
are right to be frustrated. Folks in my generation have not done enough to deal with a potentially cataclysmic problem that you now stand to inherit.
But I also want to share some advice my mother used to give me, if I was feeling anxious or angry or depressed or scared, she'd look at me and she'd
say, don't sulk, get busy, get to work and change what needs to be changed. And luckily, that's exactly what young people around the world are doing
right now.
Two years ago, a Swedish teenager named Greta Thunberg inspired millions of people to join the largest climate demonstrations in decades. A lot of
people now know about Greta, but the world is full of Greta's.
One of the things I love most about our work at the Obama Foundation is getting to meet young activists from all over the world taking up the baton
on climate change. You just heard from Sheila Babauta from the Northern Mariana Islands. As an elected representative, Sheila is fighting to
preserve natural resources on the island and helping young people take the lead in the fight for human rights and climate action.
I've met people like Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez from Panama. After representing his country at the Paris Negotiations, I think he was like 22,
one then led an effort to amend the Constitution of Panama, today he is here in Glasgow as a climate negotiator.
[APPLAUSE]
[09:45:05]
OBAMA: You've got Colette Pichon Battle who is the founder and executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy in Louisiana back in
the States. They are a nonprofit helping communities of color across the South that are already feeling the effects of climate change, rebuild after
disasters and build more sustainable communities and more sustainable economies.
And then there is Luisa Neubauer, an activist who leads Friday's For Future Strikes in Germany. During the Global Climate Strikes in 2019, Luisa helped
organize 270,000 marchers in Berlin, put pressure on German political parties to take climate change seriously.
Climate change is frightening, she said. So the question is, how can we turn this anxiety into something constructive? That's what these young
leaders are already doing.
I'm really looking forward to sitting down and talking with some of them in a separate forum later today, because they're not just working for their
own countries, they are forming a movement across borders, to make the older generation that got us into this mess, see that we all have an
obligation to dig ourselves out. And if those older folks won't listen, they need to get out of the way.
Now, at this point, some of the young people watching or listening, they may be thinking, I don't have time to organize 200,000 people, or propose a
constitutional amendment. I've got a Math exam next week. I get that, I promise you, unlike Greta, I was not on the cover of "Time" Magazine when I
was 16 years old, and if I was skipping school, it had nothing to do with climate change.
But there are plenty of things that each and every one of you, young people can do that won't require devoting your entire life to the cause, but will
make a real difference. The first and most important is if you are age- eligible to vote the issue. Vote like your life depends on it because it does.
I recognize that a lot of young people may be cynical about politics, but the cold hard fact is, we will not have more ambitious climate plans coming
out of governments unless governments feel some pressure from voters.
In one survey of young people in 22 countries, more people cited climate change as one of the most important issues facing the world than anything
else. Young people understand this issue. But they don't always vote at the same levels as older folks.
Many young people are now starting to realize, I've got to make my interests heard if I have the opportunity to vote. So in the 2020 U.S.
presidential election, young people were more likely than older voters to say that climate change was their top concern, and they also voted at a
rate 11 points higher than in 2016. That's the kind of thing that makes politicians sit up and take notice.
As one 20-year-old organizer said, young people understand if we want to save our lives and our future, then we have to do it ourselves. And this is
part of your power that you have to use.
Don't think that you can ignore politics. You don't have to be happy about it, but you can't ignore it. You can't be too pure for it. It's part of the
process that is going to deliver all of us.
A second way you can have an impact on climate change is by pressuring companies to do the right thing. Members of your generation have already
shown you're willing to pay for products that you believe are responsible and responsive to the climate challenge, and that you're also willing to
avoid those companies that are actually making climate change worse.
[09:50:00]
OBAMA: I see this in my own daughters and their friends, their peer group, in terms of which companies they support, and which products they buy, and
not only are they sophisticated consumers, they are active and engaged citizens, and that's a message that CEOs will learn to understand.
Companies are starting to figure out that becoming more energy efficient is good for their bottom line, because they'll spend less on energy. But you
also have the opportunity to teach them that by getting serious about climate change, they have a chance to win loyal customers and employees.
And they conversely will lose customers, and top flight employees if they're not on the right side of the issue. That's part of your power, you
need to use it. While you're at it, you need to help educate your parents and grandparents, your uncles and aunts, your teachers, your employers,
because while a dangerously warming planet is a reality that a lot of you have grown up with as young people, you've studied in school, you've read
about it, it's been part of the backdrop of your childhood, members of the older generation don't have that same frame of reference.
They do love you, though. They do care about you. They listen to you more than you think, and if you explain how important the issue is to you, you
may lead them to rethink their position, or at least be more open minded. In fact, I'm pretty sure they'll listen to you in a way they might never
listen to a politician or some expert on TV or a former President. That's power you have, you have to use it.
And finally, let me say, it will not be enough to simply mobilize the converted. It will not be enough to preach to the choir, it will not be
enough to just ramp up intensity among people who already know about climate change and already agree with us and care deeply about it.
Protests are necessary to raise awareness. Hashtag campaigns can spread awareness. But to build the broad-based coalitions necessary for bold
action, we have to persuade people who either currently don't agree with us or are indifferent to the issue.
And to change the minds of those fellow citizens in our respective countries, we have to do a little more listening. We can't just yell at
them or say they're ignorant. We can't just tweet at them. It's not enough to inconvenience them through blocking traffic in a protest, we actually
have to listen to their objections and understand the reluctance of some ordinary people to see their countries move too fast on climate change, we
have to understand their realities and work with them, so that serious action on climate change doesn't adversely impact them.
So listen, it is true, a lot of climate opposition comes from fossil fuel companies trying to make a buck, despite the green ads that they run on TV.
It's true that there are climate deniers out there who for ideological reasons, you will never convince, and I'm not talking about them, I'm
talking about the fact that we've got to persuade the guy who has to drive to his factory job every single day, can't afford a Tesla, and might not be
able to pay the rent or feed his family if gas prices go up.
We have to think about the mother in India, who yes, will suffer droughts and floods made worse by climate change, but whose more immediate concern
is getting electricity so her children don't have to sit in the dark every night and can't do their homework.
[09:55:03]
OBAMA: That's not a -- you can't dismiss that concern. There are workers and communities that still depend on coal for power and jobs. And yes, they
are concerned about maintaining their wages. That's not unreasonable for them to be concerned about that.
And the fact is, the truth is that transitioning from dirty energy to clean energy does have a cost and it is not unreasonable for people who often are
already economically vulnerable, and maybe don't feel particularly politically powerful, it is not unreasonable for them to think that for all
the highfalutin talk, some of those costs of transition will be borne by them, not by the more powerful and the privileged, that's not an
unreasonable perspective for them to have.
And that's why when it comes to climate change, a country like the U.S. with a higher per capita carbon footprint does have to do more than a
country like Mali or Bangladesh. It's also why we need to make sure the people most affected by the transition to clean energy aren't the ones
bearing most of the costs. They don't have any margin for error.
I can afford to give up a lot of my current lifestyle to benefit the planet, because I'll still have a lot left over. A lot of folks don't have
that cushion. So that means that any climate plan worth its salt has to take these inequities into account, whether it's through subsidies to poor
people to ease the transition to clean energy, whether it's technology transfers that help poor countries meet their development goals, by
leapfrogging dirty fuels, we have to pay attention to those embedded inequities, and the politics that surrounds them. And that's not easy.
So let me close by being blunt. Keeping the rising global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius will not be easy. It is going to be hard. Existing
political institutions move slowly even when leaders are well-intentioned.
International cooperation has always been difficult. It's made more difficult by all the misinformation and propaganda that can flood out
through social media these days.
Business leaders, let's face it, are typically rewarded for boosting short term profits, not addressing major social issues. Getting people to work
together on a global scale takes time. And right now, that's time we don't have.
So, if we're honest with ourselves, yes, this is going to be really hard. The thing we have going for us is that humanity has done hard things
before. I believe we can do hard things again.
Yes, the process will be messy. I guarantee you, every victory will be incomplete. We will face more setbacks. Sometimes, we will be forced to
settle for imperfect compromises, because even if they don't achieve everything we want, at least they advance the cause, at least they move the
ball down the field.
But if we work hard enough for long enough, those partial victories add up. If we push hard enough, stay focused enough and are smart about it, those
victories accelerate and they build momentum.
If we listen to those who are resistant and we take their concerns seriously, and we work with them and we organize and we mobilize, and we
get our hands dirty in the difficulties of changing the political dynamics in our countries, those victories start happening a little bit more
frequently.
If we stay with it, we will get this done.
[10:00:25]
So, to all the young people out there, as well as those of you who consider yourselves young at heart, I want you to stay angry. I want you to stay
frustrated.
A channel that anger, harness that frustration. Keep pushing harder, and harder for more and more because that's what's required to meet this
challenge. Gird yourself for a marathon, not a sprint. For solving a problem this big, this complex and this important, has never happened all
at once. Since we're in the Emerald isles, here, let me quote the bar, William Shakespeare.
What wound, he writes, that ever heal, but by degrees.
Our planet has been wounded by our actions. Those wounds won't be healed today, or tomorrow or the next. But they can be healed by degrees. And if
we start with that spirit, that each of us can fight through the occasional frustration and dread. If we pledged to do our part and then follow through on those commitments, I
believe we can secure a better future. We have to and what a profound a noble task to set for ourselves.
I'm ready for the long haul if you are. Let's get to work. Thank you very much, everybody.
Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Former U.S. President Barack Obama there speaking at the COP26 and a real rallying cry not just to young people, to the young of heart, as
he said, and that more action needs to be taken. I think one of the best lines in that speech, how do we close the gap between what's necessary for
human survival and what seems politically possible right now.
And he said, we have to take the politics out of it action is being taken. And we've come a long way since the Paris Climate Accords were agreed, but
far more work needs to be done. He also pointed to countries like India, to Russia, to China that they have to step up to and and play their role in
addition to all nations, the E.U., and the United States. More needs to be done, as he said, and quoted his mother, don't sulk get to work. And that
was how he ended this speech.
And we hope for that. That's it for the show. Stay safe. I'll hand you over now to Becky Anderson with "CONNECT THE WORLD." And we'll see you tomorrow.
END
