Administrator Samantha Power Interview with CNBC at COP28

DAN MURPHY: I'm very pleased to bring in our next guest – Samantha Power is here, she is Administrator for USAID. Administrator, thank you so much for joining us today, I really appreciate the opportunity. 

ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Great to be here. 

MR. MURPHY: Administrator, in your role you’ve traveled extensively to the countries and the communities that have been most impacted by this climate crisis. In your observation right now, what concerns you the most about the state of play?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: The warming planet, in short, and the intensification and greater frequency of extreme weather events. What we see is drought giving rise to scarcer and scarcer resources, that gives rise to more competition, to more conflict. So it's no accident that we see the highest number of displaced people in the world right now since Hitler. And every year that number keeps rising. 

I traveled just in the last year or so to Pakistan – a third of the country was underwater, you were inland by hundreds of miles, you're in a helicopter, you looked out, and you feel like you're over the Atlantic Ocean, I mean it’s that degree of flooding. And then I traveled not long after that to Somalia to meet with herders where basically their livestock – their goats, their sheep, their camels – have just been decimated. Suicide rates skyrocketing because they have no meaning in their lives other than this tradition that has carried on for thousands of years. 

So basically, those are the problems. But we, at USAID, don't get to admire the problem, we have to think about what we can do to help countries prepare and adapt to this increase in flooding, and this increase in drought, and the inability to predict rain patterns in the way that people have done for so many millenia. 

MR. MURPHY: You've illustrated it beautifully. So now explain to me what the role and scope of USAID is in identifying, addressing, and being part of some of the solutions now. 

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Great. Well, I mean in general, we are with those communities. So as they say ‘how do we recover,’ we try to help them recover. But better yet, we need to get in on that front end. So, we for decades have worked with farmers on their planting strategies – how they can make more income, livelihoods, put their kids through school – now we have to think about how do we get these farmers the technology on their phones, so they can better predict again what are more volatile weather patterns? How do we get them not just seeds, but drought resistance seeds? And how do we get them crop insurance? Which is really hard to convince insurance companies to go into places where some of these climate effects are picking up intensity. So that’s one example. 

I think we're here at COP, trying to mobilize private sector interests in this specific part of the climate finance area, which is adaptation – helping countries build this for resilience and we don't have to keep coming in order to replace these circumstances and try to get people back on their feet. But rather, render them sturdier and better able to know what’s coming. Make the infrastructure more durable, you know, knowing that those extreme weather events are coming. But the public sector, we're not resourced to keep up with this need, which is growing and growing and growing. So without the private sector, that gap is going to mean a lot of loss of life – and millions, tens of millions of loss of livelihoods. So we’re excited here that the private sector is showing more interest in adaptation. 

We’re actually this year, compared to when we first launched an appeal to the private sector to get involved in building this resilience on the front end, we’re tripling the number of companies that are going to make commitments. And the key is not for them to see it as philanthropy, but rather as part of their business model. You know we need companies, just as they have in transitioning now to renewables or investing in renewables, they see it as a for-profit enterprise. That’s a much more reliable partnership that we can have than if it’s just charity and philanthropic. 

So it's pretty exciting to see companies actually recognizing both in terms of losses averted, and even money to be made, that there's a business to be had in adaptation. It doesn't sound great, because there's a lot of suffering out there, but fundamentally, if it's just governments, or multilateral development banks operating on our own, that gap between the public sector financing and the needs is just too great to bridge. 

MR. MURPHY: Administrator, COP28 is taking place against the backdrop of a new conflict in our region. We've just seen Israel renew its offensive against Hamas and Gaza. What is USAID doing to support Palestinian civilians? Is aid going to where it’s needed the most?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: I mean, the short answer is far more aid is needed. But also commercial traffic is needed to go into Gaza. I was yesterday, in fact, in El-Arish which has become the new humanitarian hub for getting the humanitarian pipeline into Gaza. During the humanitarian pause, of course, we’re able to get something like 1,600 trucks in. We had hoped that that would be the new baseline in terms of 200-250 trucks a day. And we were hopeful, again, commercial access could resume again. We’re not there. 

The pause is over, the trucks are still going in, but it's you know, a half or even less of what we were able to do during the pause. And even during the pause that wasn’t enough. So the main message is – more generosity from donors to provide the medical supplies, the food, the shelter that people need. But also we need to accelerate the flow-in. I saw hundreds of trucks near the Rafah crossing yesterday, each of those trucks has in it blankets, medicines, things that are vitally needed. Those trucks need to be in Gaza and not in Egypt, but there’s a big backlog. And so that's what USAID is doing – is working with Israelis, the Egyptians and others to accelerate. But at the same time, of course civilians are most vulnerable now as well from the war itself, and from the bombing. And so it's extremely important that international humanitarian law be respected, that civilians be protected. So we're working with our partners on the ground to deconflict or seek to deconflict, knowing again that the risk to civilians right now is acute. 

MR. MUPRHY: Administrator Power, it’s so important to have you on today because you had witness so many conflicts in your very extensive career – you've written a book about preventing genocide. Obviously, we're here at COP talking about some of the greatest threats to humanity, but as you look ahead into 2024 and beyond, what do you see as the greatest threat to humanity?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Unfortunately, in the particular communities in which we work, there are threats of all kinds. I mean, we are seeing mass atrocities being perpetrated in Sudan, for example, right now. Obviously, the terrorist attack and now the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. Conflict is – more conflict happening now than at any point since the end of the Cold War. But climate change is the long-term risk. I mean, extreme heat, deaths, displacement, wildfires that not only cost lives, take lives, but also shut down economies and livelihoods. 

So, USAID doesn’t have the luxury of choosing one threat for the future. We try to work with communities to build relationships so conflicts can be averted or diffused. But also we have to structurally make investments so the communities become more resilient. 

To what we know, even if we do everything right – and we can hold warming to where we are now, meet the nationally determined contributions that each country actually implement those national action plans that people have put out there – communities are still going to be suffering from extreme flooding, from extreme drought. And we have a responsibility particularly as historic emitters – as one of the world’s largest emitters – to support communities who’ve had almost nothing to do, I mean, an infinitesimal contribution to emissions even today, and so that historic responsibility is something that weighs on us, but also motivates us.

MR. MURPHY: Administrator Power, we’re out of time so we’ll leave it there but thank you so much for your contribution. Thanks for joining me today. I appreciate it. 

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you.