The 29th United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, ended late and with a massive finance shortfall of pledged climate finance for countries in the Global South, roughly $1 trillion less than what was sought. Many delegates were already on flights home when the final agreement was reached, while other nations like Papua New Guinea chose not to attend the conference altogether, while over 1,700 fossil fuel industry lobbyists attended.Collective frustration with this result spurred former executive secretary of the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres – under whose leadership the Paris Agreement was struck – to co-author a letter to the UN urging an overhaul to the COP process, and calling it “no longer fit for purpose.”Figueres joins Mongabay’s podcast to speak about why the world’s governments seemingly cannot agree to move decisively on climate action, and what can be done about it.In this frank conversation, Figueres says why – despite these frustrations and disappointments – she remains optimistic about the global effort to decarbonize economies and transport systems, citing recent advancements in the deployment of renewable energy and the power of everyday actions.“I used to think that it was our collective responsibility to guarantee to future generations that they would have a perfect world. And now that I am a recent grandmother, I really look back at that and I go, ‘my God, we cannot guarantee to future generations that they’re going to have a perfect world.’ We cannot. So, what can we do? We can do our darndest and we can wake up every morning and make a choice and say ‘where am I going to put my energy today?’” she says.Figueres is also the co-host of the popular podcast, Outrage + Optimism, which features conversations and analysis about the climate crisis.Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.Banner image: Sunrise over the Pinipini river in the Peruvian Amazon. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.Rachel Donald is a climate corruption reporter and the creator of Planet: Critical, the podcast and newsletter for a world in crisis. Her latest thoughts can be found at 𝕏 via @CrisisReports and at Bluesky via @racheldonald.bsky.social.Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.Christiana Figueres: I think the problem here is, and the one that I struggle against constantly, is a view of the world that is black and white. Either we’re perfect. I don’t think we’re either of the two. And I would invite anyone to give me an example of where we stand in one of the two extremes of anything in life. It’s just
Gio. Gen 9th, 2025
