A Climate Time Capsule, Part 2: The Start of the International Climate Change Fight

Short Wave

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4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

In 1992, diplomats and scientists at the United Nations negotiated the first-ever treaty intended to tackle the climate change. This brought the issue to the forefront and led to a series of conferences that have occurred almost every year for the next 30 years.

Short Wave host Emily Kwong talks to freelance climate reporter, Dan Charles about how those at the conference wrote a clear and ambitious goal that they didn't even fully understand. Plus — why it rattled the fossil fuel industry.

This is part 2 of a two-part series. For part 1, check out "A Climate Time Capsule (Part 1): The Start of the International Climate Change Fight"

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Hey, Shortwaveers, Emily Kwong here and guess what?
0:07.8	I have Dan Charles back in the studio.
0:10.2	Hey, Dan.
0:11.0	Hi, Emily.
0:12.0	Hi, you are going to pick up a story you started earlier this week that I really want
0:16.0	to hear the ending to.
0:17.0	It's the story of how the very first climate change treaty came to be 30 years ago, almost
0:22.3	to the day.
0:23.3	And it ended with a bit of a cliffhanger.
0:26.1	Yes, we ended at a moment when the negotiations were stuck.
0:31.2	The Europeans wanted the treaty to include a target, you know, a limit on the greenhouse
0:35.4	gas emissions, at least from wealthier countries.
0:38.8	And the US was dead set against that.
0:41.0	So we arrive at this moment late April 1992.
0:47.2	The Sancapsis show where in conference room three that UN headquarters in New York, a
0:54.5	French diplomat named Jean Repair starts one last negotiating session.
0:58.9	He starts handing out a new draft of this framework convention on climate change, a compromise.
1:05.4	In this recording, you just hear the interpreter.
1:07.3	The portions of the text are being distributed now in English and they are now in the process
1:13.8	of translation into the other languages.
1:16.1	Jean Repair was calling this text his proposal as chairman, but the thing is he had not actually
	...

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