UN's Climate Conference Convenes in Poland, and So Do We

little later on in the show. But first, we'd like to start off each episode of Parts Pavilion with a little news quiz. The way this works as we bring in a couple of Bloomberg Environment reporters each week and test them on their knowledge of what's been going on in the news. The winner gets bragging rights throughout the newsroom, the loser doesn't. And today joining us are Bloomberg Environments,

Fatima Hussein and I'm Anna say Ed. Thank you so much for joining us, Thank you, thank you for having us, and let's get started. Here is question number one. If Congress can't reach a federal spending agreement by midnight on Friday, we're going to have a government shutdown. But if it does happen, this one would be a little different than the previous shutdowns. Because Congress has already passed spending packages

for a few federal agencies. The question is, name three of the agencies that would not be affected by a shutdown if it were to happen at the end of this week. Chime it in at any time. Defense Department. You're gonna use the shaker. You gotta use the shaker. There you go. Okay, I'm recognizing amana. Defense Department. That's one. Homeland Security, that is wrong. Keep going, that's also wrong. Alright, I'd give up, fatima. Would you like to try to steal?

So you already have one Defense department? Correct, Labor Department, that's right, You need one more, one more to win? Is really struggling? Department of Education? That is correct? Yes, whoah, whoa whoa, All right, that is right. If the is a government shutdown, those three agencies and several others would not be affected. They would still continue to operate because

Congress already passed spending bills for those agencies. However, some of the agencies that would shut down would be the Department of Agriculture, NASA, Homeland Security, most importantly to us EPA, the Department of the Interior, and hud to name a few. So this would be an interesting shutdown if it does happen.

But we'll see what happens. It's bizarre that FEMA is not being our Department of Homeland Security is not being funded because with all the disasters wildfires, earthquake, and Alaska, you would think that agency would remain funded. You're right. I think the main reason why they can't agree on that agency is because that's the one that would build the border wall, which is the main sticking point. The

administration wants funding to build this wall. Democrats in Congress and some Republicans also don't want to give it to them. So that's where the logjam is there. Question number two. As we mentioned at the top, there's a big international climate change conference going on right now. The group that is putting that conference on is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Here's the question. Which US president signed

on to the UN treaty that created this group? Fatima, I could be wrong, Bill Clinton, You are extremely wrong. It could not be more wrong. Sorry about that. Sorry, I'm gonna would you like to steal was that the late President Bush? That is correct. I'm gonna wins that point. The President who's signed on to the UN treaty that created the Climate Framework Group was the late George hw Bush who died on Friday at the age of ninety four.

That was one of his signature environmental achievements as well as he signed on to the Clean Air Act amendments of nineteen ninety one that really reshaped how we regulate air in this country. George hw Bush died on Friday at the age of ninety four. The score now is I'm gonna one Fatima one. This will be the tiebreaker here. Whoever get wins. This is going all the way. The third question bloomberg environments. Bobby McGill is at the UN conference that I just mentioned as we speak. That is

where he is right now. The question is what country is Bobby McGill in right now? I think that was I'm gonna Poland, that's right. I need that Bobby gotta be a little bit bigger, quicker on the draw. Bobby McGill right now is in Poland at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference. We are going to be hearing from him a little bit later in the podcast, so stay tuned for that. But right now it looks like Amana has won. Congratulations to her. You win nothing, Fatima,

you have lost. You lose nothing. Thank you now, and now we're going to take a little bit of a break, but we'll be back in a second with more of what's going on in Poland. Stay tuned. All right, we're back and we're about to head to Poland. That's where the twenty fourth meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking place right now. And by the way, just for some context, this is the UN group that was responsible for the Paris climate degree, So these guys

are a big deal Bloomberg environments. Bobby Miguel was able to catch up with Maria Fernando Espinoza, President of the UN General Assembly, in Poland, and he asked her about the state of humanity's attempts to address this global problem. I think that we are in an emergency situation because it so happens that climate change is not we used when we started with the climate negotiations. It was something that we thought was going to happen in the future,

even though we had very concrete and solid evidence. But we were thinking about climate negative impacts to come. And now it is so obvious that it is happening and happening now. It's devastating entire countries and economies. That happened in Dominica, in Fiji it happens eighty percent of the entire infrastructure just swiped out in one store. And these things are happening. The two million climate migrants and refugees only in twenty eighteen is a reality. So we are touching,

you know, the devastating effects of climate change. So it's not about the future, it is about the present, and it is really putting in question our capacity to deliver on you know, the basics. The basics meaning the sustainable development goals attend twenty thirty, the survival of people and their fundamental right to their livelihoods and to their countries of origin. So the situation really cries for urgent action.

How does that change? How is this urgency changing in the politics of the rule book and I guess primarily of climate finance as well, considering that you know, these have been challenging discussions. Is this new evidence going to break through any any sort of impast Well, I think that that really raised the awareness, raised the concern, but also raised the commitment. And we are seeing for example, you know, a very strong involved commitment of Germany for

the replenishment of the Green Climate Fund. You know, strong voice from the eighteen European countries that gathered around a call from the from the Austrian president. He put together a group of eighteen countries saying yes, we need to increase our ambition and recommit. And we have a European Union that is saying we will be a free coal region by twenty to fifty. So these are the kind of commitments that we need and we need to really scale up the ambition that we already had in Paris.

This brings you know, greater urgency but also the urgent the cry need of coming up with very concrete specific solutions on the use of renewables, on the shift the restructuring of our production matrixes, but also in a change of culture in the demand side, the consumers. The way the consumers have to change, the way they leave, they where they interact, they where they buy, the way they consume.

So this is a completely a game changer because we are putting, you know, in risk the very existence of humankind in this planet. It's not a minor issue. Curious what you think about the US and presumably Brazil sort of stepping aside in their in their leadership on climate Brazil specifically, Where do you think how do you think

Volscenara's election in Brazil will affect the success of Paris overall. Well, I would say that a climate change is perhaps one thing that affects every country and everybody, and there are different ways of responding to the climate crisis and the climate challenges. If you ask me, the climate is the typical global problem that requires multilateral global responses, and the house for multilateralism is the United Nations. So I think

that's the way to deal and address the issue. There are some other countries and I think we need to be very respectful that they think that they just can do, you know, perhaps for the time being, you know, without you know, embarking in this, you know, in the multilateral architecture.

But what I hope is that the positive developments we have seen in the United States, for example, the hundreds of cities coming together mayors of cities embracing the Paris Agreement and saying we are going to deliver on this. This is very promising when you see individual states of the United States saying we will take up the Paris Agreement and we will deliver because this is so important. So I think that the role of local governments in

general is extremely important. And you know, in the case of Brazil, let's hope that the same will happen. So given the a moment ago you called this climate change a global emergency, what gives you the most hope that humanity will tackle this in a constructive and effective way. Well, you know, if you see at the climate crisis as a puzzle, as a whole complex landscape, we have the evidence, we have the science, we have the knowledge, we have the technologies. You know, we still need to do more,

but we have the resources. So now it is about factoring all these elements to deliver. There is the awareness and the political will of the majority. It's almost unanimous, no one. I mean, I just ended a meeting with indigenous peoples. I participated in the Youth summit yesterday, Youth Climate Summit yesterday, And you see that this is an issue for society. It's not only for political leaders or

the political class, but it's for everybody. So my hope relies on the possibility of humankind to respond to life threatening child that's where my hope relies, and that has to align the willingness of politicians, of the private sector, of organized civil society, and I think that we have to harvest from that momentum. That was Maria Fernanda Espinoza, President of the UN General Assembly, speaking with Bloomberg Environment's Bobby McGill from the UN Climate Conference in Poland. Thanks

Bobby for sending that along. To keep up with Bobby's every dispatch from Poland, you know where to go. It's our website, news dot Bloomberg environment dot com. That website, once again is news dot Bloomberg Environment dot com. This episode of Parkspavilion was produced by myself and Jessica Coombs. Our editor is Marissa Horn and our audio engineer is Nicholas and Zelada. The music for Parspavilion is a message by Jazzar and Polski Obertoski by Metchislaw Zakowski. Tune in next week for more