Global News Podcast - $300bn cash deal rescues COP29 climate talks from collapse

Episode Date: November 24, 2024

At the climate summit in Azerbaijan, richer countries agreed to increase their contribution to $300bn a year by 2035, to help poorer countries most affected. Also: many killed during Israeli air strike in Beirut.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Good, bad billionaire from the BBC World Service. The podcast exploring the minds, the motives and the money of some of the world's richest individuals. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard and in the early hours of Sunday, the 24th of November, these are our main stories. The UN climate summit in Azerbaijan has agreed that richer countries will raise their climate

finance contribution to support poorer countries to $300 billion a year by 2035. A day of intense Israeli airstrikes and gun battles has left dozens dead in Lebanon. And the Sudanese army says it's recaptured a provincial capital from its paramilitary rivals, the RSF. Also in this podcast, how artificial intelligence is being harnessed to save red squirrels in the UK. And we begin in Azerbaijan. Saturday was a hectic and chaotic day at COP29, the UN climate summit in the country, which at times teetered on the brink of collapse. At one stage, dozens of representatives from small Pacific island nations threatened by

rising sea levels walked out, disrupting the summit which had already overrun by a day. Then came a final draft proposal aimed at resolving the bitter dispute between the richer and poorer countries over climate financing. The COP29 document pledged to raise support for underdeveloped countries to $300 billion a year by 2035. Those countries had demanded $500 billion but late into the night they agreed to the lower figure. Before that there was one smaller breakthrough, an agreement to establish a global market for buying and selling carbon credits. Earlier on Saturday the BBC's climate editor Justin Rolat caught up with some of the negotiators as they scuttled from room

to room to try to get a sense of what was holding up a deal. Where a day over the deadline for an agreement and the representatives of dozens of the world's least developed countries have just stormed out of a key meeting. Cedric Schuster of Samoa represents the world's small island states. We've just walked out, we came here to this COP for a fair deal. We feel that we haven't been heard and there's a deal to be made and we have not been consulted. There is real anger here. Mohamed Adaw speaks for African nations.

We need to hold the historic politicians accountable for the crisis of course and we cannot let the great escape that they are actually planning in Baku. Baku will be remembered as the place that betrayed the world. John, how's it going? Poor countries want more cash. Richer nations say they'll keep talking. John Podesta is the US's climate envoy. I'm hoping this is the storm before the calm. Have you commented that might be the case? Well we're going to keep working and see whether we can pull it back together.

But cash is hard to come by in developed countries like the UK, which face cost of living crises. They're saying half a trillion minimum or they won't do a deal. They're saying no deal is better than a deal. In the end parties will have to decide the deal that is offered and whether it's an acceptable deal or not. Currently, developed countries pay $100 billion a year. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says the new offer of $300 billion by 2035 is generous, not when you take into account inflation, say poorer countries. Juan Carlos Gó Gomez is the climate envoy for Panama. This is what they always do. They break us at the last minute.

They push it and push it and push it until the negotiators leave, until we're tired, until we're delusional from not eating, from not sleeping. And all the while the clock keeps on ticking. Well then, a breakthrough. The summit's president is Mukhtar Babayev. I now resume the 11th meeting of the CMA. I invite parties to turn to agenda sub-items 11A, new collective quantified goal on climate finance. I hereby invite the CMA to adopt the draft decision contained in document CMA slash 2024 L point two two.

Alex Ritson got this update from the BBC's environment correspondent Matt McGraw who is in Baku. The presidency called the parties together, there's been a stop-start plenary as the texts were circulated around the hall. And the key element about finance was gaveled through a short while ago. It was greeted by a lot of cheering in the hall. But almost immediately, it was followed by a number of speeches from developing countries and now from India going on in the background complaining about the way that this has been handled, that the text had been forced onto countries, that it was an unfortunate incident and there was a lack of trust and lack of

collaboration but as we see it now the key text on finance has been passed and that means a significant uplift in the amount of money that's being made available from the richer countries to developing countries to help fight climate change. But is it enough money to fight climate change? Yes, that's a trillion dollar question as people in the developing world would say because they have been looking for 1.3 trillion dollars a year from 2035 saying that that was what the science would say was their portion of how much it would cost them to both deal with the impacts of climate change and also to move away from fossil fuels. The richer world said they could only pay about

300 billion, a small fraction of that money, and that ultimately seems to have been where they've left it. Now, there is a road map in the document. It means that there can be a way of raising this finance over the next number of years. Other things can come into it. The trading of carbon credits could generate some money, taxes on the wealthy, taxes on aviation. All things that don't yet exist could come into the pot and raise the money. But at the moment, they're settling for 300 billion, which is three times the current amount of climate finance that countries receive. Matt, last question.

You've been to many, many of these events in the past. How are you feeling today? That's a very difficult question to to answer. I'm feeling relieved that this process is looking like it's come to an end here. It looked like it was going to go on forever but I think there's a sense of, I think, disappointment and upset in some respects. I think the splits in the world that have been shown up by this process here are very, very deep indeed. We're seeing a reopening of old wounds. It's a bit of a mess I think

at the moment and with the onset of Donald Trump's second presidency, an avowed climate change skeptic, it doesn't leave the climate movement in a particularly good place at this moment in time. Matt McGrath in Azerbaijan. Next to Lebanon and Saturday saw a day of intense airstrikes and fighting across the country which the Health Ministry there said claimed the lives of at least 50 people. The deadliest incident came early when an eight-storey building in central Beirut was flattened by Israeli warplanes. Lebanese officials say 20 people are known to have been killed there, but emergency services are still combing the rubble. Dozens more died in Israeli strikes in eastern and southern Lebanon. Ali Nasser lives in Beirut, close to the residential building that was hit.

At 4am, it was me and my family sleeping. It was a very horrible explosion happened. All of the windows, the glasses are over me and my wife and my children. My home now is a battlefield, if you see it. Everything is broken. I'm upset with what's happening from Israel, from our government. Is it necessary to call all these people for one person? Or we are not human?

That's what I'm asking. It's very horrible. I am very, very angry, very upset. Most of them are our neighbours and friends every day. You see them at morning, good morning, good morning. They die. We heard more from our Middle East correspondent, Ugo Bershega. Here in Beirut there hasn't been any reaction from the Israeli military.

What we're hearing from Israeli media is that this was an attempt to kill a senior Hezbollah official who has apparently survived this assassination attempt. We heard from a Hezbollah MP who said there were no senior members of the group in the building that was hit here in central Beirut. This was a massive attack that happened at around four o'clock in the morning here. Obviously a lot of people were sleeping. This attack happened with no warning. I live in central Beirut, not really far from the site that was hit and I could hear and feel the explosions that happened. There were several

explosions. It seems that a bunker buster bomb was used in the attack so I think this gives you an idea of the scale and the power of this attack that happened here in Beirut. And are they still searching for survivors? I spent the morning at the site of the attack and there were still working at the site in the afternoon, still hours after the strike. There was still a very heavy smell of explosives in the air and I saw two bodies being retrieved from the rubble. There was obviously a lot of destruction. This is a densely populated area of Beirut. It wasn't the first time that this part of the city was hit. And what the Lebanese Health Ministry said was that there were dozens of

wounded, so the number of victims was likely to rise. Hugo Bashega in Beirut. The Israeli military says it's investigating claims by Hamas that an Israeli hostage has been killed in northern Gaza. Hamas, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by several countries, has posted a video of the purported captive and said she was killed by Israeli military action. Meanwhile, rallies were held in Israel on Saturday evening to call for the release of the remaining 100 hostages. From Jerusalem here's our security correspondent Frank Gardner.

How many more must die? It's time for dialogue. No more funerals. These are heartfelt chants by those campaigning for the release of Israel's hostages still held in Gaza. More than one year on after around 250 men, women and children were dragged across the border into Gaza by Hamas and others, negotiations to release the remaining 101 appear to have stalled. Hamas have now posted a video which purports to show a dead female hostage killed, they say, by Israeli forces. The Israel Defense Forces say they are in contact with the family concerned and are

investigating it. Among those attending a rally in Jerusalem and reacting to the reports was Ma'ayan Turner, a rabbi who has lived in Jerusalem for decades and is originally from New Zealand. Unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me. It's not the first time that it's happened. We know that some of the hostages who were taken were killed by the Israeli forces. It's very tragic but I think it only highlights how much we really need to be doing something differently. Qatar, which helped broker the release of a large number of hostages late last year, has stepped back from its mediation role, saying it will wait until the two sides, Israel

and Hamas, are serious about a ceasefire deal. In the meantime, Israeli airstrikes continue and aid agencies warn of impending famine in the north of Gaza. That was Frank Gardner. The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrereau has insisted there are no red lines in Western support for Ukraine. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Barreau said that the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could fire French long-range missiles into Russia days after American and British missiles

were used. He was speaking to Laura Kounsberg. After months of persuasion from President Zelensky and protests from the Kremlin, this week UK and US supplied long-range missiles were fired into Russia for the first time. The French Foreign Minister has now underlined that France is willing to allow the same. Jean-Noel Barreau told me that French weapons could be used in the same way, in the logic of self-defense, and that President Macron had indicated his permission back in May. His comments are significant after a grave week in Ukraine, with Russia

firing a hypersonic missile for the first time. As the conflict becomes more serious, Mr Barreau suggested there would be no limit to Western support for President Zelensky. We will support Ukraine as intensely and as long as necessary. Why? Because it is our security that is at stake. Each time the Russian army progresses by one square kilometre, the threat gets one square kilometre closer to Europe. Our security is at stake and that's why we stand alongside the Ukrainians. Barreau also suggested France was trying to encourage Western allies to consider granting Ukraine's request to join the defence partnership NATO in order to guarantee its long-term security. And he said European countries would have to spend more on

defense to confront new dangers in the world. With the war worsening, winter coming and President Trump on his way back to the White House, a UK government source acknowledged it was crunch time for the conflict. That was Laura Koonsberg. Well as the conflict in Ukraine continues the BBC has heard from a Ukrainian soldier on the ground who sent continues, the BBC has heard from a Ukrainian soldier on the ground, who sent us a number of audio messages from the front line. I spent a few months on the front line. The situation on our part of the front is more or less stable.

We're based close to the Russian border. We the military don't anticipate any particular change after Trump becomes president. With regards to territory, we're not sure that the war will end if we give away Crimea, Donbas, Luhansk and other territories. We think this is more likely to be a pause and then simply a second Russia-Ukraine war. This is why we should understand that the ceasefire has to be final and conclusive, not just a pause in the war, which would give Russia time to prepare. The terms of the peace deal that we would accept as a buffer zone between Russia and Ukraine of at least 50 kilometers, plus NATO or US bases in Ukraine, has a guarantee of

these countries' support for Ukraine and the provision of large amounts of weapons for Ukraine. Most of all, we need munitions for artillery, multiple-launched rocket systems, grenade launchers, then short- and medium-range missiles. Those are the most important things. Regarding motivation, yes, many people are exhausted. There are many motivated people who are bringing our victory closer. Sorry I'm recording this voice note so quietly, it's just that we're on the Russian border. What would be good news for us is if NATO or US armies come into Ukraine

and help us fight Russia, or us reclaiming part of the territory, even if not all of it, but most of the territory that has been occupied since the start of the full-scale invasion, or at least the provision of all the weapons that we need. I think with support from NATO troops it would take us two, three months to end this war by counter-attacking with all types of weapons." A Ukrainian soldier on the front line. Still to come... I've seen the photography of my father.

Your father? My father. This one? Had you seen this photo before? No. The legacy of a late Ugandan photographer whose images captured life in a rural town. Christine Herron was 15 years old in the spring of 1993 when she disappeared.

And in over 30 years, there has been no trace of her. I did know before the night was over she was dead though. A story of murder and heartbreak and investigative error. He was 90% sure he was going to be convicted. From CBC podcasts, I'm David Rigeon and this is Someone Knows Something Season 9, the Christine Heron Case Available now. To Sudan now, where the 18-month civil war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary rapid support forces has forced 10 million people from their homes and into hunger.

It's been described as the world's largest humanitarian crisis. On Friday, the first aid convoy in months reached Zamzam camp in North Darfur, where a famine was declared in August. The camp is temporary home to hundreds of thousands of people. While Sudan's population suffers, the fighting continues. The Sudanese army says it's retaken the city of Sinja in Senar state from the RSF. Our Africa regional editor is Will Ross. The Sudanese army has been celebrating the capture of Sinja which had been held by the rapid support forces and there are a few videos that can be found on social media showing people who'd fled the city celebrating

after the army recaptured it. But it's hard to think that this is a really significant moment in the war when at the same time we're hearing of further attacks in Blue Nile State by the rapid support forces. And of course over the last few days we have heard of some aid reaching the worst hit areas of the Darfur region in the west of Sudan, but clearly not enough aid getting in. It is an incredibly difficult place for aid agencies to work. I've been speaking with Jan Egerland, who's the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He's just been to Port Sudan, which is under the army's control, and West Darfur, which is under the control of the rapid support forces. And he told me that the country is basically being torn apart. The parties are tearing down their own house. They are massacring their own people. They are

instrumentalizing starvation as a technique. But the rest of the world were also failing as Sudan completely. It's an underfunded operation, even though it's the world's biggest emergency. Number two, the aid agencies, many of the biggest agencies are not at scale in Sudan. The parties are specializing in scaring us and we're specialising in being scared. Visas are being denied, permits are being denied. There should be much more pressure, diplomatic pressure from the UN member states and we should also be probably showing more guts as humanitarian organisations. And obviously ending the war is what's really needed.

Have you got any ideas that haven't been put forward yet as to how the fighting might stop? Well, it would stop when these generals, when these warlords feel that they have more to lose by continuing fighting than by doing the only sensible thing, end the violence and start to talk. At this moment, it's not happening. There is not a concerted international pressure on the armed actors, and there are more and more disintegration, less unity of control, more armed men that are looting and going berserk on the civilian population. It's not only two armies, the SAF and the RSF.

There are also many ethnic armies now, many ethnic groups. So I fear it could disintegrate into some kind of a gigantic Mogadishu 20 years back. The world doesn't want that. If Europe wants to avoid another 2015 with a million people crossing the Atlantic or more, they need to invest in aid and protection and peace in this corner of the world. Jan Egerland from the Norwegian Refugee Council was talking to Will Ross. Living in a time when images are so casually made and stored on a phone, it's easy to forget how fragile and precious a picture once was. And Tare Guma Mbaho Mwine has made it his mission to preserve and exhibit the work

of the late Ugandan studio photographer Chibate Alawisha Salongo, who recorded the lives of people from the rural town of Mbarizi. He's turned this body of work into an award-winning documentary called Memories of Love Returned. Antare Gouma Mbaho Mwine has been speaking about his journey over 22 years with the BBC's Christine Ottiena. I lost my childhood photos, many of them, so I think that's part of what's propelled me to create this piece. Oh my God, when I first discovered Ciabatte's work, my breath was taken away because I'd never seen a rural photographer,

a rural photographer, rural photographer document thousands and thousands of people's lives. So there's one image in particular that I found really haunting of a wedding couple and the bride is dressed in this incredible gown. You can see her clearer than the husband and the groom you only see one eye. And it's like he's still saying, I'm here. In December 2021, Ntare mounted a massive outdoor exhibition of Chibati's work. He fixed huge canvases with thousands of pictures at an unused, newly constructed petrol station. The advertising was local. advertising was local.

A man on the back of a motorcycle with a megaphone drove around town advertising the event. Hundreds showed up. I've seen the photograph of my father. Your father? My father. Wow. This one? This one?

Yeah. Had you seen this photo before? No. This one was the first time I built this area between 1962 and 1966. Thank you for these memories. Yeah, yeah. Of course. I had never seen my father in my life because he died when I was a baby. Here he is with my mother.

I feel great happiness to see this photo for the first time. A group are crouched at a picture that has got some children in it. Children who are now all grown. This is my father. This one is a teacher. This one is a midwife. This one is working in the mango spirit. This one is my mother.

This one is my mother. This one is my mother. This one is my mother. This one is a teacher. This one is a midwife. This one is working in mango spirit. Wow! In the thousands of photographs that Chibati took, there's a large series of images of same-sex friendships or same-sex couples. We might never know what the story was behind those because many of those people had passed. But one of the key things in these photographs was love and affection and intimacy.

But when the Uganda government passed this anti-gay bill, I thought this would be an opportunity to explore these photographs. In the old days, you could hold hands with your friend and there was no issue. But now with this passing of this bill, people are afraid to just hold hands. I have been completely taken by surprise the response to the film. In three weeks the film has premiered on three continents and won two Best Documentary Feature awards. He would be very proud to know that the promise is being kept and that we're continuing to get his work out

and share his incredible photographs with the world. In the documentary, at the end of that exhibition, Ntariya handed out scissors and people were able to snip out images of family members. Indeed, memories of love returned. to tennis and the two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray is to coach his longtime rival Novak Djokovic at next year's Australian Open. The 37-year-old Scott retired from playing in August but says he's looking forward to being on the same side of the net as Djokovic. Here's our tennis correspondent Russell Fuller. He never liked retirement anyway was how Novak Djokovic announced the news on social media with a highlights reel of some shared moments from their playing career. Djokovic won 25 of their 36 meetings, but was on the losing side when Murray won his

first Grand Slam at the US Open and his first Wimbledon title in 2013. Murray will work with Djokovic in the off-season and then at the Australian Open, which the 37-year-old Serb will be trying to win for an 11th time. It was always expected Murray would go into coaching just not so soon or with Djokovic. They are only seven days apart in age, struck up a friendship as juniors and played their first match together at the age of 11. Russell Fuller, now can you tell the difference between the sound of this squirrel... and this one?

I'm sure you already knew this, but the first one is a grey squirrel. The second one is the red squirrel, native to Britain. The introduction of the larger grey squirrels from North America to the UK has seen the numbers of red squirrels plummet. Now conservationists say artificial intelligence could be a game changer in the efforts to save the red squirrel as Stephanie Zachrisson reports. The non-native grey squirrels are largely responsible for the huge decline in the numbers of red squirrels in the UK. Since they arrived here around 200 years ago, they have grown in size and

they carry a virus that is lethal to their smaller cousins. As conservationists try to monitor the population, they realised AI technology could help and reached out to Emma McClenahan from Genesis Engine. We were just building it for home use for our garden but they started telling us about pox and the problems and stuff that they were actually facing. So they provided us data, videos, images, things like that to label the squirrels. Efforts to preserve red squirrels are further complicated by the fact that despite their name, not all of them are red.

There's lots of different features that make up a red squirrel, whether it's their weight, whether it's their size, the toughness of their ears, their tails. So we take all that data and we feed it in and then that output will go and control a device. So Emma created the Squirrel Agent, which uses AI to scan and quickly analyse the animal's features to decide which is which. Then it can instruct squirrel feeders, only letting in red ones into those containing food and only greys into those where food has been replaced with contraceptive paste. The tool is currently being tested in

woodland sites around the UK together with five wildlife charities. The device will depend on the charity but it could be anything from devices that dispense medication or alerts to let them know that a grey squirrel is in red squirrel areas so they can go and disinfect it. Emma McLenahan says the tool is a real showcase of what AI can do and they're now working on making it even more accurate. She says the squirrel agent could in future be able to identify individual animals as a squirrel's whiskers are as unique as human fingerprints. That was Stephanie Zackerson.

And that's it from us for now but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you would like to comment on this edition or the topics covered in it, do please send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Jack Wilfan. The producer was Liam McSheffrey. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye. Christine Herron was 15 years old in the spring of 1993 when she disappeared. And in over 30 years there has been no trace of her. I did know before the night was over she was dead though. A story of murder and heartbreak and investigative error.

He was 90% sure he was going to be convicted. From CBC podcasts, I'm David Rigeon and this is Someone Knows Something Season 9, the Christine Heron case. Available now.