Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Rebecca Kesb.

On the opening day of the COP 29 Climate Change Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, a stark warning, a red alert issued by the UN's World Meteorological Organisation.

2024 is on track to be the hottest year on record,

and the Earth's surface temperature has breached the 1.5 degree rise on pre-industrial levels

that climate scientists warn will lead to more extreme weather events.

Now, that could be temporary and may have been influenced by the El Nino effect this year,

but the message is we're already at a critical moment.

We'll hear from the World Meteorological Organisation.

In a moment, first the current COP president, Maktar Babayev,

opened the proceedings today and he said there was a difficult task ahead for the delegates.

COP 29 is a moment of truth for the Paris Agreement.

It will test our commitment to the multilateral climate system.

We must now demonstrate that we are prepared to meet the goals we have set ourselves.

This is not easy.

But how far is the event being influenced by the prospect of a new Trump administration in the White House?

Mr Trump is a known climate change sceptic and pulled the USA out of the Paris Agreement last time he was in office.

John Podesta, a senior advisor to the current U.S. President Joe Biden for international climate policy,

also spoke at the summit not long ago.

What I want to tell you today is that while the United States federal government under Donald Trump may put climate action

on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States

with commitment and passion and belief. Well, we're joined live now by Matt McGraw, our environment correspondent.

He's in Baku.

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