In one part of the world, families are fleeing rising water. In another, delegates are debating rising costs. One country is fighting to survive another typhoon. The rest are still fighting over who should pay for prevention. WATCH & READ: Philippines Battles 21st Storm as COP30 Climate Summit Begins in Brazil | Vantage With Palki SharmaTRANSCRIPT: Now, let's talk about climate change. The Philippines is underwater again. Another typhoon has slammed into the islands. It's called Fun Wong. More than a million people have been evacuated and at least five people have been confirmed dead. This is the 21st storm to hit the country this year. The 21st this year. Every few weeks, a new storm arrives. It is stronger, wetter, and deadlier.
Scientists have warned about this for years. A warmer planet means stronger storms. And yet, halfway across the world, leaders are paying lip service to climate change.
They've gathered in Brazil for COP30. It's the global climate summit. These leaders are meeting in the Amazon to talk about saving the planet, but the reality is hard to ignore. The biggest polluters are not even at the table. The same pledges are being repeated, the same deadlines are being pushed, and the action the world needs is still missing. Here's a report.
1.00
The Philippines is underwater again. Typhoon Fun Wong has torn across the islands with winds close to 200 km an hour. It is the 21 st storm to hit the country this year. More than 1.4 million people have been evacuated and at least five people have been confirmed dead.
For two days, relentless rain and wind battered communities across the islands. Rivers burst their banks, cutting off towns. Power lines collapsed, plunging thousands into darkness.
Rescue teams used boats to reach families stranded in their homes. It is a scene the country has seen too many times before and too often this year.
Just days earlier, another typhoon tore through the same region. A storm called Kalmeigi killed more than people and left thousands in makeshift shelters. Many were still living there when Typhoon Fun Wong arrived. For them, it wasn't a new disaster, just the next one.
2.10
The ground was still soaked. The rivers were still high, and the damage from one storm simply merged into the next. Each season now feels shorter, each recovery harder. Because in the Philippines, the break between storms has almost disappeared. Experts say the pattern is no longer random. Warmer oceans means stronger typhoons. A hotter atmosphere carries more moisture and more rainfall.
For millions in the country, climate change is not a theory. It is the weather outside their door. Yet, while the Philippines counts the cost, another kind of storm is unfolding thousands of kilome away. In Brazil, world leaders are meeting under the banner of COP30, the annual climate summit. It is being held in Belem on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.
The idea to find solutions to the same crisis that is now flooding homes across the world. But the summit is already showing familiar cracks. The United States has not sent a senior delegation. Around 160 countries are represented only by ministers or deputies, and the targets discussed a decade ago in Paris remain largely unmet.
3.30
Brazil's president says he brought the meeting to the Amazon so that delegates could see the reality. He's calling for a global fund to protect rainforests and a road map to phase down fossil fuels. However, the discussions sound much like those from past summits. Funds promised are still unpaid. Timelines are still disputed, and the gap between words and action keeps widening. It has been 30 years since the first COP30 meeting. 30 years of plans, declarations, and photo opportunities. Yet, global emissions keep rising and the storms keep coming.
This week, the contrast is impossible to miss. In one part of the world, families are fleeing rising water. In another, delegates are debating rising costs. One country is fighting to survive another typhoon. The rest are still fighting over who should pay for prevention.
4.25
Climate change is no longer a projection on paper. It is a pattern in the sky, in the soil, and in the storms. And as talks continue in air conditioned rooms, the Philippines is once again cleaning up after the consequences.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
[KE: Everything climate scientists predicted about global warming since the 1970s is coming true, only faster. But no one foresaw this Trump / Gatsby like separation of leaders from people on the ground, which leads to no leadership at all. Enjoy your hors d'ouvres.]
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