PM at COP29: 'Climate change kills - it has done so in Valencia'

The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, told this year's United Nations climate change conference (COP29) in Baku in Azerbaijan that "climate change kills". Talking about the devastating 'Dana'-low-pressure storm floods that swept through southeastern Spain two weeks ago, Sánchez said: "I have come here to tell you that climate change kills, and in Valencia it has killed 220 of my fellow countrymen and women".

This kicked off his five-minute speech at COP29 on Tuesday this week, when he added: "There are still people missing and hundreds of homes covered in mud."

"Some still doubt the scientific evidence of climate change. Let's not drag our feet. We know what the problem is and what needs to be done. We have seen governments dither and walk backwards just to make the rich richer. This formula is leading us to disaster," he said.

Minutes earlier, in another speech, he called for a larger budget. "It is not enough. We have to innovate our financing system, incorporate more and better the private sector, look for new sources of financing such as large fortunes, we have to reflect a new reality of a world that has changed," Sánchez said.

With Sánchez's speech the floods in Valencia were referenced twice in two days at the annual climate change event. In his opening speech, COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev remembered "the victims of the floods in Spain". Sánchez blamed the disaster on climate change but UN secretary general António Guterres said: "The rich cause the problem, the poor pay the highest price."

The head of the UN referenced the Oxfam report of last October: "The richest billionaires emit more carbon in an hour and a half than the average person does in a lifetime." These are words which would have hit hard with many world leaders at the event, particularly those who arrived on private planes.

The opportunity to curb greenhouse gas emissions is in your hands, was the message at COP29. Last year, the emission change was a new record high, rising by 1.3% compared to 2022. Despite agreements and pledges, humans emitted 57.1 equivalent gigatonnes of CO2, according to the UN. This translates, Guterres said, into "families fearing for their lives because of the next storm", "workers collapsing in the heat", "children going hungry because of drought" and "floods devastating communities and infrastructure". "And no one is spared," he added.