Welcome to Zero. I am Akshatrati. This week, good cop, bad cop. I had to use it sometime.

I'm in Baku, yes, still in Baku for COP29. It's week two.

Which means the biggest heads of state have gone home, as have many climate celebrities

like Al Gore and Theresa May. Now negotiators are getting down to business.

We are still days away from knowing what agreement, if any,

might be reached and zero will come to you with how it all went down next week. In the meantime,

there are already questions about what the next cop might look like, and for good reasons. As we

explored in a previous episode, the small state of Azerbaijan has had its hands full in hosting 50,000 delegates and advocates who arrived in Baku from around the world.

Next year, Brazil will play host.

But not in Rio or in Sao Paulo.

Instead, the conference is set to be in the city of Bilem, the gateway to the Amazon.

A beautiful coastal city that might not have the infrastructure to host 50,000 people.

But Brazil has been trying to position itself as a leader on climate, and it wants people

who come to COP 30 to realize what's on the line.

But Brazil is also growing its oil and gas production, and quickly, reaching levels that

match the United Arab Emirates.

So I was eager to catch up with Andrei Korya de Lago, Brazil's secretary for climate

energy and the environment. He's rumored to be the next COP president, something he wouldn't

confirm on the record, but he wasn't shy in answering just how much Brazil has to do to make

COP 30 a success, from challenging logistics to fracturing geopolitics.

And what COP29 must get right to give Brazil a better footing? Andre, welcome to the show.

Hello, it's lovely to be here.

...