CHRISTIANA FIGUERES

The inventors were honored with $1.2 million in prize money to boost their work.

And it blooms in a odd metal “tree” sculpture in a center square here at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore looks at more than 30 years of climate change efforts and sees hope in progress and change. United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen and The Nature Conservancy Chief Scientist Katharine Hayhoe see it in all the people in the halls working hard. "So when people say it was a complete failure and there’s no hope, I say, just look around at every single face here,” Hayhoe said. ___Follow AP's climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment___Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears___Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations.

Things can look pretty bleak at international climate talks in Egypt

Things can look pretty bleak at international climate talks in Egypt.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — (AP) — Men usually outnumber and outrank women negotiators in climate talks, except when it comes to global warming's thorniest diplomatic issue this year — reparations for climate disasters. Whether this year's United Nations climate talks in Egypt succeed or fail mostly will come down to the issue called loss and damage in international negotiations, officials and experts say. And that provides hope, a top United Nations official said. “There are better results because women tend to be better in conflict resolution,” De Camps said. "(Legislatures) around the world that have more women, have stronger climate action," said Katharine Hayhoe, The Nature Conservancy's chief scientist.

Women are leading negotiations about the thorniest topic in the United Nations climate talks in Egypt

Women are leading negotiations about the thorniest topic in the United Nations climate talks in Egypt.

Demands for rich nations to provide additional aid for vulnerable countries suffering devastating impacts from climate change have become a major point of division at the two-week meeting. Former Irish President Mary Robinson, who is also chair of the Elders group of former global leaders, urged negotiators at the climate talks to take a “real decision” on climate financing to vulnerable countries. Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate also criticized the continued discussion and resistance from some countries to establish a loss and damage financing structure. The middle of the second weeks of climate summits in general are “a deep valley of anxiety,” said Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief who was at more than 20 summits but not the one in Egypt. ___Follow AP's climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment___Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations.

But I’m I remain hopeful that we can come to good conclusions,” European Union's top climate official, Frans Timmermans, said Wednesday. Asked what his goal for the outcome of the meeting was, Kerry was cautious, however. Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received a more enthusiastic welcome at the talks in Egypt. He met late Tuesday with Kerry and was due to hold talks with other top leaders, despite not yet being in office. ___Follow AP's climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment___Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations.

This is ridiculous to have a climate denier as the head of the World Bank." "It's clear that greenhouse-gas emissions from human activity are adding to, are causing, climate change," Malpass told the newspaper. A spokesperson for the World Bank told Reuters that the bank has limited financing for coal-fired power plants and oil and gas drilling. However, the bank president typically serves a five-year term, not at the pleasure of the U.S. president. Countries in the developing world have also previously called for the World Bank — which finances development in those nations — to be led by someone from one of them.

Scientists say climate change is bad, getting worse, but it is not game over for planet Earth or humanity. It’s young people publicly swearing off having children because of climate change. And earlier IPCC reports have shown that after 1.5 degrees, more people die, more ecosystems are in trouble and climate change worsens rapidly. Two degrees of warming would be far worse than 1.5 warming, but not the end of civilization," Mann said. ___Follow AP's climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate___Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears___Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations.

Scientists say climate change is bad, and getting worse, but it is not game over for planet Earth or humanity.

World leaders are turning up the heat and resorting to end-of-the-world rhetoric in an attempt to bring new urgency to sputtering international climate negotiations.

Climate COP26 Summit A police boat patrols the waters next to the Scottish Event Campus the venue for the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow formally opens Sunday, a day before leaders from around the world gather in Scotland's biggest city to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali) (Alberto Pezzali)GLASGOW, Scotland — (AP) — It's time for more than 130 world leaders to feel the heat. That's what worked to make the historic 2015 Paris climate deal a success, former U.N. climate secretary Christiana Figueres told The Associated Press.

Climate COP26 Summit Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief who led the 2015 Paris accord, speaks to The Associated Press in Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow formally opens Sunday, a day before leaders from around the world gather in Scotland's biggest city to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming. Figueres, the former executive secretary of the U.N.'s climate change program, was a key architect behind the historic 2015 Paris climate agreement. Knowing what details worked to make the historic Paris 2015 agreement and the individuals still working on the issue makes her optimistic, Figueres said. Figueres said it was unfair to say China was not showing up for the Glasgow conference because President Xi Jiping was not coming in person.

The woman who engineered the Paris agreement six years ago doesn’t expect the United Nations climate conference that just started in Glasgow to end with the same kind of big landmark.

President Joe Biden takes center stage in a two-day climate summit highlighting America's return to the fight to curb global warming.

President Joe Biden takes center stage in a two-day climate summit highlighting America's return to the fight to curb global warming.

President Joe Biden is being forced to go virtual for many of his leader-to-leader talks during the coronavirus pandemic, and the resulting Zoom meetings just aren't a natural fit for the back-slapping politician.

China and the United States both say they are intent on retooling their economies to burn less climate-wrecking coal, oil and gas. But tensions between them threaten their ultimate success (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)WASHINGTON – The world’s hopes for curbing climate change hinge on action by two giant nations whose relations are deteriorating: China and the United States. New details of how quickly China plans to reduce carbon emissions will be revealed Friday when Beijing releases its next Five Year Plan. And in April, President Joe Biden is expected to announce the United States' own new targets for emissions cuts. AdThe U.S. and China both have appointed veteran envoys as their global climate negotiators, John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua.

A United Nations report released on Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, finds the countries of the world are not promising to do enough carbon-cutting to keep global warming from hitting dangerous levels. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)The newest pledges by countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions are falling far short of what's needed to limit global warming to what the Paris climate accord seeks, a new United Nations report finds. Most countries — especially top carbon polluters China, United States and India — missed the Dec. 31 deadline for submitting official emission-cutting targets for November’s climate negotiations in Scotland. Fewer than half of the world’s countries, accounting for 30% of the world’s carbon emissions, submitted targets by the deadline. At least 10 countries that submitted goals last year did not provide tougher goals, Hare said.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)World leaders welcomed the United States' official return to the Paris climate accord Friday, but politically trickier steps lie just ahead for President Joe Biden, including setting a tough national target in coming months for cutting damaging fossil fuel emissions. Officially, the United States was only out of the worldwide global climate pact for 107 days. It’s the political symbolism that the largest economy refuses to see the opportunity of addressing climate change.” said Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy panel, has criticized Biden for rejoining the Paris accord, tweeting: “Returning to the Paris climate agreement will raise Americans’ energy costs and won’t solve climate change. The Biden administration will set unworkable targets for the United States while China and Russia can continue with business as usual."

A United Nations report released on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 says humans are making Earth a broken and increasingly unlivable planet through climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)Humans are making Earth a broken and increasingly unlivable planet through climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. So the world must make dramatic changes to society, economics and daily life, a new United Nations report says. And many of the solutions, such as eliminating fossil fuel use, combat multiple problems including climate change and pollution, she said. The report also tells nations to value nature in addition to the gross domestic product when calculating how an economy is doing.

Five years after a historic climate deal in Paris, world leaders are again meeting to increase their efforts to fight global warming. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)The forecast for global warming is looking a little less bleak in the long term, but not so rosy in the short term. With numerous countries pledging to clean up their act and projected temperature rises now smaller than they once were, scientists and diplomats say the outlook for mid-to-late century is not as gloomy as it was when the historic 2015 Paris climate accord was signed. On Saturday, exactly five years after the Paris climate agreement was struck, world leaders will gather virtually to both celebrate progress and chart the next steps. More than 100 countries — and even more companies, states and cities — have pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century.

Christiana Figueres, the U.N.'s head of global climate negotiations, says reaching a deal to reduce carbon emissions is finally within reach because it's in every country's economic interests to do so. She spoke with CBS News about how the U.S. could benefit from leading the way.