World Leaders To Meet At U.N. Summit On Climate Change
MARQUARDT: If you think that it feels warmer out than usual, turns out you're right. The World Meteorological Organization says that the last five years have been the hottest on record. And for many, that really does come as no surprise. Two days ago, people in cities around the world took to the streets to draw attention to the climate crisis. And tomorrow, world leaders meet here in New York at a special United Nations summit on climate change. But there will be one big major noticeable absence. President Trump is skipping the summit in order to hold his own session on religious persecution in the very same building. If that sounds familiar, that's because the President has avoided international meetings on climate before, most recently at the G7 summit in the south of France just last month. Joining me now is CNN's Senior United Nations Correspondent, Richard Roth. Richard, thanks so much for joining me. This is a huge week on the U.N. calendar. What are the major issues that are going to be focused on?</s>RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to New York for this general assembly.</s>MARQUARDT: Thank you. It's good to be back.</s>ROTH: Don't step off the curb. You're going to get hit by a limousine, a bigger threat than climate change. At least for tomorrow.</s>ROTH: But the summit on climate change is a galvanizing force, but, as you mentioned, the U.S., a few other big countries that pollute a lot, won't even be attending. The summit will bring all the speakers -- and believe it or not, the Secretary-General says you can only have three minutes to talk. And he wants and is demanding bold ideas, concrete proposals, not just, he says, flowery speeches, which is very unlike the</s>U.N. MARQUARDT: We're now two and a half years into the President's term. And when the President skips a meeting on such a crucial issue, that he world considers to be such a critical issue, what do other world leaders who will be in that meeting -- what do you think they feel? Are they surprised, are they angry, or they're just sort of accepting that this is the U.S. leader they have to deal with at this point?</s>ROTH: I think, by now, they know the deal. Some of them have their eye on their clock and the election next year. And I think they do fear that the U.S. is not a bigger player. But they're going alone on it now. They're going away from the U.S. They're forming their own coalitions, different countries, Europeans. I mean, President Macron will be there again and try to be an international mediator. He's not going to mediate this on climate change. So despite this devastating climate report issued today, when Donald Trump walks in and talks to the media tomorrow morning, I think, once again, he will say, well, there's climate information on both sides.</s>MARQUARDT: Well, one thing he may certainly be talking about is Iran. Is there any expectation -- there have been these conservations about what meetings will -- would happen at what level, possible meetings and whether they would happen with or without conditions, that's -- that kind of thing. Is there any expectation that President Trump and President Rouhani will meet this week?</s>ROTH: I'm saying no. Most people are saying no. Could anything happen? Yes. resident Clinton and Fidel Castro of Cuba met in 2000 in a hallway briefly -- in a brief moment. Nothing ever happened from it, but it was a shock. Could that happen? It's possible, the hallways get crowded. But, really, Iran doesn't even attend the head of states' meeting because of the serving of alcohol. That's on Tuesday afternoon. I do not see a meeting at this moment.</s>MARQUARDT: You wrote a piece recently that had one of the best leads that I've read in a long time. You wrote that -- on CNN.com that the UNGA sounds like a digestive track flare because --</s>ROTH: Well, that's pronounced unga (ph).</s>MARQUARDT: That's because we call it unga (ph).</s>ROTH: Yes.</s>MARQUARDT: I know that you meant that that was the way that it's pronounced, but there are a lot of flare-ups that can happen at the UNGA, at unga (ph). What are these domestic flare-ups aside from Iran that you're looking out for?</s>ROTH: I thought you were talking about --</s>MARQUARDT: In the diplomatic terms, sorry.</s>ROTH: -- medications there, where you were going with it.</s>ROTH: There are flare-ups. And well, look, you have India and Pakistan --</s>MARQUARDT: Right.</s>ROTH: -- who are really loggerheads now. It's unclear if they're going to meet. You have Venezuela's President Maduro not coming. Guaido, the opposition, his forces are going to try to meet with other people. There are meetings on a host of global crises that everyone who is watching have certainly heard of. But it just is so incremental it doesn't necessarily produce dramatic progress. As one major analyst said to me, President Trump sucks all the oxygen out of the room, also.</s>MARQUARDT: That he does. Richard Roth, our man at the U.N. Thanks so much. We'll see you in a little bit. There are alarming new details about how the climate crisis could not only affect your health but the food that we eat as well. That's coming up.