Axios House at COP28: What’s Next for Global Sustainability

The big picture: The world is watching to see how government leaders respond to a worsening climate and press forward to create lasting positive change. U.S. and global leaders gathered for Axios House's debut event at COP28 in Dubai on Dec. 4 to unpack the current state of the climate crisis and their urgent priorities for COP28.

The details: Axios senior climate reporter Andrew Freedman and 1 big thing host/editor Niala Boodhoo moderated in-depth conversations with:

• Ali Zaidi, assistant to the President and White House national climate advisor
• Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency
• The Honourable Minister Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, AOSIS chair and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Samoa

Zaidi discussed potential key takeaways from COP28:

• "There's a lot of work to be done, and I think that should be and will be the takeaway here…What will we be doing to harness these new technologies more effectively? Take out the barriers on the financing and supply chain issues, how will we be working together coming out of this to put fossil fuel emissions in our rearview mirror once and for all? Those are the questions we're faced with."

Administrator Criswell highlighted the threat of cyberattacks and misinformation as major concerns for FEMA in the future:

• "I'm very concerned about the convergence of cyber attacks with our natural disasters that our adversaries know when we are at our most vulnerable and know how to take advantage of those times…It goes into some of the misinformation as well…In East Palestine, Ohio, when the train derailed. We had nation state actors that were sending misinformation out, trying to create distrust in the federal government. In Maui. After the fires, we had nation state actors that were sending misinformation…It's a whole new challenge that we have to face now as we're trying to do the right thing to help these people that have been impacted."

Minister Schuster shared how detrimental climate-related events can be to small island developing states:

• "As temperatures rise and sea level rise, it affects not just the person but our economies. Because we're small island developing states, if nothing is done, then some of our countries will lose everything. And when we experience a cyclone or a natural disaster or climate related event, it affects the national economy. In other countries, you can get away with parts of the country affected. Whereas for us, it puts the country development back another 10 or 15 years."

Minister Schuster also reacted to the historic loss and damage fund established at COP28:

• "...getting it endorsed and capitalized as one of the first agenda items is a great victory. And not just for small island developing states, it's for the global community. Because this is a recognition of the impacts that we are dealing with now….Right now, we are dealing with the impacts, the loss and damage, on a daily basis."

Go deeper: The loss and damage fund, which originated from small island developing states, was adopted on the first day of COP28 after a 30-year controversy.

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Andy Pharoah, vice president of corporate affairs and sustainability at Mars Incorporated, discussed the current state of the climate crisis and the instability of the world:

• "...It's been a very bad year for the world. It's been a bad year for the world economy, and it's certainly been a bad year for the environment. And if you look, we are living in the world's hottest year ever. So the business case for change is strong. The environmental case for change is strong…We did polling across the seven largest economies, and we found that nearly 70% of people want companies to take as much action on the environment as they do on the economy…it's actually achievable. You can make progress. It's absolutely affordable, but it's absolutely necessary."

Thank you to Mars for sponsoring this event.