Time to Wake Up 295: COP29 and the Global Economic Consequences of Climate Change

November 21 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivers his 295th speech urging his colleagues to wake up to the threat of climate change.

Senator Whitehouse led the Senate delegation to Baku, Azerbaijan this year for the U.N.’s 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP)—the largest and most important venue for world governments to gather to find international agreement on ways to solve the global climate crisis. While at the Conference, Whitehouse participated in discussions on the future of U.S. climate policy, sea level rise and coastal resiliency, global methane enforcement, climate and trade policy, and corporate influence on climate policy. Whitehouse also met with the Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Action, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, and the Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy.

Whitehouse recaps his trip to Baku for COP29 and discusses the economic consequences Americans will face because of President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s abdication of America’s global leadership on climate.