A countdown to climate action

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

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4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Since the end of November, diplomats, scientists, activists and lobbyists from nearly every country on Earth have come together for COP 28, the United Nations climate negotiating talks. One of the goals of this gathering is for countries to agree on the best path forward to address human-driven climate change. Stakes are high as average global temperatures continue to approach a key threshold of 1.5 degree Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times — the level climate scientists say we must stay under to stave off severe climate disruptions that could contribute to flooding, drought, hunger, and conflict.

As it comes to a close, Nathan Rott with NPR's climate desk helps us navigate the take-aways from the pivotal conference.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR. Here is a pretty stark indicator for you. According to EU scientists,
0:16.5	2023 is almost certain to be the hottest year on Earth in more than 125,000 years. And climate change brought on by the burning of
0:25.9	fossil fuels is a main reason why. Now against this backdrop, tens of thousands of
0:30.9	people from nearly every country on the planet are meeting in Dubai.
0:35.0	That includes diplomats, scientists,
0:38.0	representatives from the energy industry, and climate activists.
0:42.0	What do we want?
0:43.2	Climate justice!
0:45.2	How do we want it?
0:47.2	More than 70,000 people have come together for this United Nations Climate
0:51.1	Conference known as COP28.
0:53.9	And one of the main goals is for countries to come up with some sort of agreement on how they can
0:58.3	collectively address climate change.
1:01.2	Now, early on during this conference there was some controversy a video surfaced of
1:06.1	Sultan al-Jabber an oil executive and the cop 28 president saying there's quote
1:12.2	no science unquote to support this idea
1:15.7	that phasing fossil fuels out will help meet critical climate change goals.
1:20.0	He later tried to walk that statement back and that pretty much set the tone for the next week and a half of contentious negotiations.
1:28.5	This is the indicator for Planet Money. I'm Adrian Ma.
1:31.5	To help us make sense of it all, we are going to be joined today by
1:34.6	NPR's Nathan Rott, who's with NPR's Climate Desk. That's coming up after the
1:39.4	break.
	...

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