11/18/22 11/18/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from the u.n. climate summit in sharm el sheikh, egypt, this is democracy now! >> [indiscernible] as he was being carried out back

to his cell, [indiscernible] he started to smash his head against the wall. he was restrained and tied down and put on suicide watch. amy: a near death experience. that's what egyptian political prisoner alaa abdel fattah told his family he went through last week before his seven month-long hunger strike was broken. we'll speak with his aunt, the renowned writer ahdaf soueif, who visited him in prison yesterday along with his mother and sister. then we will speak to a ukrainian climate activist who was kicked out of the u.n. climate summit after she and others disrupted an event hosted by russia here in sharm el-sheikh. >> you are despicable.

you're despicable. amy: we will also speak to ukine's leading climate scientist as well as a prominent russian environmentalist living in south who is here at the cop. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the u.n. climate summit in sharm el-sheikh, egypt. talks are expected to go into overtime on the last official day of cop 27 as delegates seek a compromise on an agreement over the issue of loss and damage and how to slow down global emissions to combat the climate catastrophe. activists condemned an early draft agreement which failed to call for the phase-down of all

fossil fuels. on thursday, the european union agreed to a new loss and damage fund to compensate poor nations for the impacts of the climate crisis. but key actors, including china -- including the united states, have thus far objected to such a fund. in an eleventh-hour appeal to climate delegates, u.n. secretary-general antónio guterr on thursday urged nations to overcome a breakdown in trust between rich and poor and stand together to prevent the worst effects of the climate crisis. >> this is no time for finger-pointing. i'm here to appeal to all parties to rise to this moment into the greatest challenge that humanity is facing. amy: we will have more on the u.n. climate summit here in

sharm el sheikh, egypt, later in the broadcast. house speaker nancy pelosi says she will not seek a leadership role in the next congress after two decades spent leading house democrats. pelosi spoke from the house floor thursday after midterm election results showed republicans have won a narrow majority in congress' lower chamber. >> i will not seek reelection to democratic leadership in the next congress. i am grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility. amy: in california, democratic congressmember katie porter has been reelected to represent the 47th house district in orange county after a narrow win over republican scott baugh. porter is a former uc irvine law professor known for her tough questioning of witnesses during hearings of the house oversight and natural resources committees.

questioning, for example, the heads of wells fargo and bank of america as well as j.p. morgan chase. in colorado, the race between far right republican congressmember lauren boebert and democratic challenger adam isch is headed for a recount after an initial tally showed boebert's lead at just over 500 votes out of 327,000 counted. boebert is a far-right trump-supporter, an election denier, and infamously vowed to carry her glock pistol on the capitol grounds. last year, republican leader kevin mccarthy refused to sanction boebert after she used racist language to attack her muslim colleagues. ukraine's government says 10 million people have been left without electricity after dozens of russian aerial attacks targeted ukraine's civilian infrastructure. on thursday, the first snow of the season fell on kyiv and

other parts of ukraine. in russia, u.s. political prisoner and women's basketball star brittney griner has been move to a penal colony hundreds of miles southeast of moscow. earlier today, russia's deputy foreign minister said he hopes to negotiate a prisoner swap with the u.s. that would include convicted arms trafficker viktor bout, known as the "merchant of death." meanwhile, jailed russian opposition leader aleksei navalny said thursday he's been permanently transferred to a cramped solitary confinement cell in a notorious penal colony east of moscow and will be largely cut off from the outside world. the biden administration is petitioning a u.s. court to grant saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman sovereign immunity in a civil case seeking legal accountability in his involvement in the 2018 murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. the u.s. state department argued bin salman's new role as saudi arabia's prime minister meant

that he is "the sitting head of government and, accordingly, immune." biden vowed as a presidential candidate to make saudi arabia a "pariah" for the state-sponsored killing of khashoggi, who was a "washington post" columnist. but since taking office, biden has refused to condemn bin him for khashoggi's assassination. in the gaza strip, at least 21 people were killed and several more injured on thursday after a fire tore through an apartment complex in the crowded jabalia refugee camp. israeli officials said they would lift gaza's normal travel restrictions to allow survivors to seek medical treatment in israel. the fifa world cup opens sunday as human rights advocates continue to condemn the serious abuses against the thousands of migrant workers who built stadiums and other infrastructure for qatar to host

one of the most anticipated international sports tournaments. rights groups reports thousands of migrant workers from countries including india, pakistan, nepal, bangladesh, and sri lanka ha died in qatar over the past decade in preparation of the world cup. qatar has also deported migrant workers who've denounced wage theft. in new york city, part-time faculty members at the new school have gone on an indefinite strike to demand a fair union contract. adjuncts say they haven't received a pay raise since 2018 and that administrators' offer of a 3.5% wage increase falls far short of keeping pace with record inflation. meanwhile, nearly 50,000 student workers at all 10 university of california campuses are on the fifth day of an open-ended strike. the workers are demanding child care subsidies, better healthcare for dependents, lower tuition for international scholars, and are asking for their compensation to be tied to housing costs.

in more labor news, thousands of starbucks workers at over 100 stores nationwide walked off the job yesterday over the company's refusal to bargain in good-faith with newly unionized employees. starbucks workers in new york joined the day of action dubbed the red cup rebellion. >> starbucks claims to be a progressive company but they drive us to the bone every single day. our health care is unaffordable for many of us. we have serious health and safety issues in our store. >> we are fighting for better scheduling, fair wages, and the failure to bargain from starbucks. they have not decided to bargain with the unions, which is an illegal activity. they have been stalling. amy: hundreds of twitter employees resigned thursday after rejecting new owner elon musk's one-day ultimatum to go

"extremely hard core" or leave with three month's severance pay. twitter has closed its doors until monday as they figure out which former workers they now need to cut access for and amid rumors musk is worried about intern sabotage at the company. musk reportedlmet with some workers in hopes of convincing them to stay. the hashtag #riptwitter began trending on twitter. on thursday night, a light projection on twitter's san francisco headquarters trolled elon musk with the words "bankruptcy baby," "apartheid profiteer," and "space karen," among other insults. alabama prison officials called out the execution of kenneth eugene smith after they thursday struggled to establish an iv line for his lethal injection. alabama canceled another execution in september for the same reason.

this comes after an execution team in arizona struggled on wednesday with the killing of a prisoner for the third time this year. 76-year-old mary hooper had maintained his innocence after being sentenced to death in 19 without any dna evidence. 83 after failing to insert an iv into his arm, prison officials used a vein near his groin. hooper reportedly turned to witnesses and said, "can you believe this?" and staughton lynd, the longtime peace and civil rights activist, lawyer, and author, has died at the age of 92. in the early 1960's, lynd taught alongside his friend howard zinn at spelman college in atlanta and served as director of the sncc freedom schools of mississippi. he was a leading early critic of the vietnam war. the state department stripped him of his passport after he

traveled to north vietnam in 1965. staughton lynd was a conscientious objector during the korean war and later supported u.s. soldiers who refused to fight in iraq. he appeared on democracy now! in 2006. >> the magic of this precedents is a soldier in iraq are like lieutenant and what taught a under orders to be deployed to iraq can say, i consider this to be a war cme even if my superiors tell me something different, i'm obliged to use my own judgment, my own conscience, and so i say no. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the u.n. climate summit here in sharm el-sheikh, egypt. we begin with a story we have been following closely. it's alaa abdel fattah's 41st

birthday today. the imprisoned technologist, writer, and activist had a near death experience last week according to his family who were able to visit him in prison on thursday for the first time in almost a month. in a statement released last night, the family said he appeared exhausted, weak, vulnerable and very, very thin. alaa, a dual egyptian-british citizen who has been in prison for most of the past nine years, began a hunger strike over seven months ago to protest his imprisonment and to dema a consular visit from the british embassy. on november 6, he escalated his strike and stoed drinking water altogether to coinde with the first day of the u.n. climate summit. last thursday, prison authorities said they began an unspecified medical intervention on alaa while his sister sanaa seif campaigned at cop27 to raise awareness about her brother's case.

then earlier this week, alaa informed his family in handwritten notes that he had started drinking water again and had ended the hunger strike. but it wasn't until his family was able to visit him thursday in the wadi el-natroun prison that they the learned the details of what happened. speaking through a glass barrier via a phone hookup, alaa told his family he had repeatedly smashed his head against the wall on tuesday and wednesday last week. he did so the first time after having a meltdown when prison officials refused to acknowledge his strike. he was restrained, tied down, and put on suicide watch. the second, to force authorities to send an investigator to file an official report about his hunger strike. on november 11, alaa collapsed in the shower and woke up surrounded by his cellmates and a medical team who put an iv in his arm. they gave him electrolyte fluid, a spoonful of honey, and a pickle. this is how his hunger strike was broken.

in the statement, the family said -- "he says he could see then that his wish for the end was getting the better of him. that there was a strong part of him that was ready to die. he also recognized that this was partly to do with his physical weakness, and so he had to fight it." all of this was happening as tens of thousands of delegates are convening here in sharm el-sheikh for cop27. ala's case has been at the forefront of the summit with calls by climate justice activists for his release and world leaders including the heads of state of britain, france, germany, and the united states raising his case in their meetings with egyptian president abdel fattah el-sisi. but the egyptian government has made no indication they will release him. on wednesday, i caught up with the egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson ahmed abu zeid here at the summit and tried to ask him about the case.

this is too important. >> i have an appointment. amy: just 30 seconds. if you might tell me if president sisi will be framed -- >> as i mentioned, i have to be back after this meeting. amy: do you promise? >> yes, sure. amy: despite his promise, he did not join us for the show so we approached him again on thursday. we waited for you on the show yesterday. coax i swear to god, have to finish things now. i'm so sorry. i'm just passing by. amy: mr. foreign minister, can you join us on the show at 3:00? have you got an answer to the question if there are fraying alaa? the egyptian foreign minister spokesperson refused to answer questions once again. the family says alaa will resume his hunger strike imminently if

there continues to be no real movement in his case. he has been in prison for almost all of the last decade. for more, we go to cairo to speak with ahdaf soueif. she is the author of a number of books, including "cairo: my city, our revolution" and "the p of love," which was shortlisted for the booker prize. she is also alaa's aunt and visited alaa yesterday along with his mother laila and sister sanaa. ahdaf soueif, welcome to democracy now! i am so sorry you're here under the circumstances. >> thank you, amy. always good to talk to you. amy: can you just described what happened yesterday? describe the scene at the present after waiting for hours. what was it like alaa to see alaa? what does he look like? >> he is very, very thin. he seems very frail. we were in a glass cabin with a

barrier between us. the conversation happened through handset which was quite faint. one person was holding the ndset and the other person would be waiting. i was watching for a while and the frailty really, really got to me as well as he from time to time had to just gently lean against the wall. he had agreed to live energy. it was like nervous energy. i'm sorry? he was talking. amy: keep going. he was talking. >> he was talking very fast. he was using a lot of hand gestures. there was a lot of energy and a lot of need to relay what had happened. we received a letter from him,

which we took away with us yesterday. he says he tried to write down this experience and put it in a letter so he would not have to spend 20 minutes of the visit describing it. but the authorities preferred this would be described in person rather than committed to writing. amy: yesterday you spoke to some reporters along with your niece anaa. she said -- "it was my advice to alaa that he shouldn't go back to a hunger strike, not because i think a hunger strike is wrong but because psychologically he is very, very unstable and i'm not sure if he will try to hurt himself again. they are very cruel in how they operate and a body on hunger strike is very a vulnerable body and a mind on hunger strike is a very vulnerable mind." ahdaf soueif, alaa says he will go back on hunger strike if there is no movement on his case. your thoughts? >> if alaa had not gone on

hunger strike and if we hadot managed to have night international campaign for him, there uld be no hope at all of his release or even of listing to any of s demands. e st going on strike co has to be considered even though it really breaks my heart, to think of him going back on hunger strike when he is so thin and weak. but alaa is a strong person and a wonderful combination of rationality and emotion. what he said, which you mentioned earlier, when he was coming back from being unconscious and for a while he felt the sweetness of allowing it to be the end, a release, and

at the same time he realized this is probably partly to do with weakness and i have to look at this properly but he describes it something like a ssible virus getting into a sort of riding on his struggle to be free. therefore he decided he really had to fight it and strength within himself the will to live. so he decided that he was not going to go back to hunger strike straightaway, that he would build up his strength again, tt he would give his cellmates a break because they had been having a really hard time because of his ordeal. and that he would ask us for a birthday cake so he could celebrate not just his birthday, but celebrate life itself, as he puts it, all the births that

were yet to come. he is reestablishing a positive attitude and he is trying to build up his strength and the strength of his cellmates so that if yesterday back on hunger strike -- i passionately hope he does not have to do this, that we don't have to start counting the days again. th campaign, yes, it was linked -- the urgency was linked to the hunger strike but the campaign has left no one any doubt that alaa should be freed. and there are voices in egypt saying this as well. amy: in the visit yesterday, you and your sister laila, your niece sanaa told alaa what was happening in the outside world in a global wave of support for him. in response, alaa said, "any

form of political organizing that may solve our global crises has to stem from personal solidarity. like this." could you talk about what it meant to him? here at the summit, it has changed the whole discussion, the issue that climate justice cannot be talked about without considering human rights. >> yes, it has. it transformed cop27. i have to say as well our friends and colleagues, egyptian in zeros, people -- eptian ngos, people who have taken a huge risk in speaking out at cop and we are waiting to see what happens when cop is over and the guests go home. we really hope this might be a turning point or at least some kind of, i don't know, new

beginning and things can open up a b. alaa -- he had no idea. he had no idea what was happening outside his cell, even being admitted to the medical center was not permitted probably in order to keep them in isolation so he would not know what is going on. it was very important, very big for him to learn the size of what happened but also when i told him about the couple of personal messages, letters that have been written to him by palestinian prisoners and moroccan prisoners and a picture that someone had sent of herself celebrating her birthday with her partner and saying that she would never again take the

presence of special occasions for granted and she and her partner were thinking of alaa on their day. there's a special smile that overtakes us sometimes and it is very tender smile. and it was when i mentioned personal things like that that that really shone through. it was after that that he said this thing about personal solidarity being the basis for organizing for global -- amy: ahdaf soueif, is the british government doing enough? he is an egyptian-british citizen. the prime minister issued a statement of concern about alaa. yet the german chancellor

calling first freedom, biden raised the issue when he was here. what are you demanding of world leaders? >> alaa is a british national. we completely don't understand how the british can allow a friendly nation, with a lot of shared interests, to sit on a consular visit. alaa is being singled out for very harsh treatment. the british government should not allow it. it is insulting, actually. we have had questions. we've had sharp and pointed questions in the house of commons, in the house of lords, the british media have done its bit.

but unfortunately, the language coming from downing street and the foreigcommonwealth office, yes, they speak about in mmitted and high-priority and constant mentioning's of the case, but we've had no results. amy: finally, alaa asked for an mp3 player, which for the first time he got in years. can you talk about the significance of that moment? he said music makethem feel alive. >> yeah. it is incredibly important because he has been asking for music for three years now. music is just essential part of alaa's life. getting the mp3, in the letter

he describes how he got batteries and so on. and then actually he says there was a moment of almost exultation when he heard "comfortably numb" and that amazing music while the blood came back to my limbs. amy: ahdaf soueif, thank you for being with us, for reporting on your visit with alaa along with alaa's mother and your niece sanaa. ahdaf soueif is the author of several books including "the map of love" and "cairo: my city, our revolution." we're going to play in our music reich the first piece of music that alaa heard in three years,

pink floyd "comfortably numb" and then we speak with ukrainian climate activist and leading ukrainian climate scientist. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "comfortably numb," by pink floyd. it was the first song alaa abdel fatah heard in three years. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the u.n. climate summit in sharm el-sheikh. a prominent ukrainian climate activist has been kicked out of the u.n. climate talks after she and others disrupted a russian event inside cop27. during the event, svitlana romanko and others accused russia of committing war crimes in ukraine.

>> [indiscernible] you are despicable. you're despicable. amy: that is svitlana romanko and other activists removed from the event and had their cop27 badges suspended. she has since left egypt over fears for her safety following the incident. she's joining us now. she founded the group razom we stand. we last spoke to svitlana romanko in april, shortly after she co-wrote an article with bill mckibben headlined "the ukraine war is a decision point -- banks should stop funding the

fossil fuel industry forever." svitlana romanko, welcome back to democracy now! we're going to go to this protest in a minute but a quick thought on our first segment, the joining together of the issue of climate justice and human rights with the longtime imprisonment of alaa abdel fattah and the demand for his freedom that has so reverberated throughout this summit. >> thank you so much for having me here. we think of activists today, also in uganda who were multiple times detained for opposition

where dictatorships are alive and well. my thought personally, go to those activists that can't leave, who are imprisoned, families and friends. i would like add [indiscernible] if we seek to move away from fossil fuels. it has become quite clear fossil fuels - fund destruction and my own country. 40% or more of citizens don't

have access to electricity to heat their homes. my team has got to work -- they have to think of those of us -- [indiscernible]

amy: svitlana romanko, can you talk about the protests that you engage to that how you thrown out of the u.n. climate summit and why you chose to do that? you are longtime climate activists in ukraine. >> yes, of course. what i said is at the beginning, started speaking directly to the panel. this panel consisted of minister of energy, environment of russia [indiscernible] business and academia. [indiscernible]

how dare you come here in the heart of climate talks while you're destroying my country and other countries. you're destroying the freedom and democracy while waging this war on climate with their fossil fuels. what i did, i actually did what every ukrainian dreams about doing, i said you are a terrorist state and torturing and killing us daily for nine months. your oil and gas is killing us. you're guilty in war crimes, environmental crimes, and you should not be here.

then activists started to stand up and shout russia's guilty in war crimes. they shouted how despicable they are until we were all removed -- [indiscernible] we wanted to use our freedom of speaking. stroying our people.

for me it was very symbolic. [indiscernible] amy: i want to thank you so much for joining us, svitlana romanko . we're joined by svitlana krakovska, head of the delegation of ukraine to the intergovernmental panel on climate change or ipcc. she is one of ukraine's leading climate scientists, senior scientist at the national antarctic scientific center and head of the applied climatology laboratory in ukraine. you are still inside the summit. he spent eight years -- you

spent eight years, getting ready to deliver it, russia invaded ukraine. can you talk about what it was like as you and other ukrainian scientists tried to release this report as the bombs were falling on your city, the capital, kyiv? >> thank you for inviting the and that yes the question which is it was a terrible situation for me because i was the head of the delegation in u.n. climate and we were approving this report and bombs started to fall on kyiv. i was so angry. i was so angry that on top of all the problems we have on our planet, we now have war, which

is much more important for us as scientists at that moment and of course there for all of those on this planet because -- i was thinking, you know, i would project in a few days, weeks, months and what we have now. it is exactly what we have now, actually. amy: you have called ukraine's war a fossil fuel war. explain what you mean. >> first of all, i would say it is not ukraine's war. this is russia's war on ukraine. there is a big difference. it is very clear for me from the beginning because, climate scientist that russia able to do this war because she has enough money.

this army was built just because russia has -- not good, has fossil fuels which is sold other countries. it is an enabler of the russia war on ukraine. at the same time, fossil fuels is the cause of climate change. for me, it was clear, this connection. i am happy it was clear for many people in the world and now i hope they are about to finish our dependency on fossil fuels. amy: your science is so important to you. you decided not to leave kyiv. yep four children? >> yes. we decided to stay in kyiv. again, i was angry. i was angry because i did not want to leave my city where i

am my children were born. i was sitting with my husband. [indiscernible] we were in the corridors. my daughters spent a few months and the bathroom, just living there. show people what it is like to be inside, actually. at the same time i asked people, don't stop to fight climate change. while we're still in the war in ukraine, of course -- climate change will not stop.

i did not speak about climate change in ukraine from the full-scale invasion, but now here at cop, ukraine [indiscernible] the event about recovery, transition, about our future. it is essential for us in ukraine to think about a better future on this greenway. amy: you are a leading scientist in ukraine which makes you a leading scientist, climate scientist in the world. your assessment of how the talks have progressed? what many scientists and activist are saying come it is astounding they don't mention fossil fuels or the phasing down of all fossil fuels. your thoughts? >> i don't have too much

experience in cop. i'm not very political. it is my second cop. i remember my first just a year ago and i was surprised -- now i see it is even more. should stop to listen to signs. they see the impact of climate change. i see the good signs of changing. understand civil society we need to continue to push them to be more active but at the same time i understand any actions should

be -- the climate system is very complex and we need to think carefully and really rely on science. amy: are you returning to kyiv after this climate summit? >> yes. [indiscernible] i'm a positive person. i am optimistic. many prominent scientists and activist -- i believe we can do it together.

before we argued a lot and civil society. we were united. amy: svitlana krakovska, thank you for being with us, head of the delegation of ukraine, intergovernmental panel on climate change or ipcc. next up, we speak with the prominent russian environment list. here he is that she is here at the stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue to broadcast from u.n. climate summit in sharm el sheikh, egypt, we are joined now by the prominent russia environmentalist vladimir slivyak. he is co-chair of the russian environmental group ecodefense. last year he won the right livelihood award, the alternative nobel peace prize, for defending the environment and mobilizing grassroots opposition to the coal and nuclear industries in russia. he is now living in exile in germany but is joining us here in sharm el-sheikh, egypt. welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. you have been to every single climate summit since the first one back in 1995 in berlin? >> yeah, that's true. amy: can you talk about your experience here? a bit different from the past with your own country russia at war with

ukraine and what that means when it comes to climate catastrophes? >> first of all, i can say russia -- there were a couple of events but officials don't want to risk or get into trouble with ukrainian people and they are afraid of them. the only governmental site have been two days ago and there was a lot of ukrainian activists who were shouting, giving really hard time to russian officials. america did you agree with their position? >> russia started a bloody ward ukraine that should be stopped immediately. russia should withdraw its troops from ukraine, absolutely. amy: can you talk about what your greatest concerns are? the whole discussion about a possible nuclear bomb or nuclear

power plant becoming a kind of bomb it it is attacked and what that means? that has long been your work. >> for the first time in history, we are witnessing how one country is taking over another country's nuclear plant and threatening to -- well, nuclear accident. of the same time, this country, which is russia, is also threatening the world with starting nuclear war. we have never seen it in the history. hope we will never see it again in the history anything like this, but i think -- it is done by vladimir putin regime. unfortunately, my country became -- i really mean it when i'm saying it. i just hope there will be a system change and regime change in russia so activists will have another chance to continue working there. amy: how do you think that will

happen? >> there's quite some change the regime will fall by itself. so many things have been done so wrong in russia. i think our best chance is this regime is too weak. it was not designed for war. it is a big question for me, whether this regime will actually survive the war. amy: vladimir slivyak, there was a bbc correspondent who was removed from a russian side event. can you talk about what happened and the question that reporter was asking? >> reporter asked a question about war in ukraine, and russian responsibility. the security just removed him from the room. obvious the security was informed by the russian delegation to people talking about war because this is what they wanted to avoid, basically.

they thought they could avoid speaking about war. amy: your organization ego defense --ecodefence together with one of russia's oldest human rights groups filed a lawsuit to one of the first climate-related lawsuits against the russian federation. can you talk about what your demands are in with the latest news is about this lawsuit? >> we want climate action from russian government. russia's government has never been doing anything for climate. there are no plans to reduce use of fossil fuels. there are not any plans to develop renewable sources of energy. in general, that is some kind of a policy that you would expect 50 years ago from a country, but not now, not in the 21st century. we applied to the high court in russia. we want the court to decide

russian government should actually finally start doing something for climate means reducing pollution and emissions, means reusing fossil fuels and start to develop renewable energy. our appeal was turned down so we are now going to the court of human rights. amy: as we walked through the pavilions, we see a whole new nuclear energy stall, let's say, way larger than a stall. you see a lot of people wearing t-shirts "ask me about nuclear energy." the iaea for the first time in the 27 years of this u.n. climate summit has set up presentations for nuclear energy. can you talk about the significance of this and this being posed as an answer to fossil fuels? >> it is unprecedented. it is never been like that in the previous cops.

we have never seen that the connectivity of a nuclear industry. i think the reason is clear. this industry being in the decline for a long period of time. well, the first time the last 40 years the generation of nuclear energy is below 10% globally, in the global energy bill, now 11%. at the same time renewable is growing of produce is more than 10% over global energy. and of course nuclear industry feels threatened. they feel like it is our last chance to advertise. they feel like if they cannot get some peace of this climate money now and if they cannot push countries for ordering more nuclear reactors, it may well be the end of a nuclear industry globally. that is why they became so much active now and i also want to

say here at the negotiations, it is great we have a coalition of nongovernmental organizations. they publish a good statement this morning condemning nuclear power and say nuclear power cannot save the climate. it is very simple to describe why. it takes very long to build nuclear reactors. like if you decide you want -- if you are a country who decided to build nuclear reactors, was been close to 20 years from the moment you plan the rector to the moment to generate electricity. if we don't need climate action in 20 years, we need it today. time is running out. the second thing, it is extremely expensive. it is much more expensive than everything. renewable energy is getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.

you cannot even compare. and then nuclear active sentence -- and then nuclear accidents. it can be extremely dangerous and should not be an instrument of climate action. amy: russia is the third largest supplier of uranium to the united states. president biden has been oil and gas imports from russia -- banned oil and gas imports from russia but not uranium. talk about the significance. >> i spent almost a whole year -- i'm going around different countries, meeting politicians, doing public talks, basically on one issue and this issue is stop war in ukraine. it became possible because

vladimir putin accumulated enough money. he got enough money to start this war because the western countries, european union and the united states, incredibly big money for energy resources, for fossil fuel, uranium. in europe where i mostly working now, we can hear a lot of statements about fossil fuels and i think europe is doing good about the embargo of fossil fuels but we also hear no information on uranium delivery from russia and this is what i am campaigning right now on. while the u.s. is dependent on russian uranium delivery, europe is also dependent, almost 20% of uranium supplies to the eu and another 20% of kazakhstan.

the most important thing to understand, it is still possible to do something. and why we should do something about this dependence. one simple reason, as long as the united states and european union continue to pay vladimir putin for uranium for fossil fuel, that means this money will be used for the war in ukraine, that means more people will die in ukraine. amy: we have to leave it there but i want to thank you so much for being with us. vladimir slivyak, co-chair for the leading russian environmental organization ecodefense. that does it for our show. the u.n. climate summit is expected to go to the weekend. we will be reporting more on it on monday. a very happy belated birthday to our digital editor ishmael daro.

thank you for our team here at cup 27. juan gonzalez will be giving a speech today. check out our website democracynow.org. ñ?