"A Very, Very Big Deal." Countries Take On Fossil Fuels

Short Wave

NPR

Science, Life Sciences, Daily News, Astronomy, News, Nature

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Many countries are frustrated with U.N. climate conferences. While some countries urgently want to transition away from fossil fuels — the main driver of global warming — others are blocking that language from climate agreements. Today on the show, Emily talks with Julia Simon from NPR’s climate desk. She takes us to Brazil and introduces us to a group of countries that are trying something new.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mone, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen.
0:10.7	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:16.1	Hey, shortwavers. Emily Kwong here with Julia Simon from NPR's Climate Desk. Hey, Julia.
0:22.8	Hey, Emily. It's so good to be here.
0:31.2	I'm so excited to talk to you because you just got back from COP 30, the UN Climate Change Conference in Belen, Brazil, at the edge of the Amazon rainforest. How was it?
0:39.1	Well, I would say eventful is a good word to describe it. The conference took place in these big plastic tents. And the day before the conference was supposed to end, I was on the phone with my editor in the U.S. Sadie Babbitts.
0:44.0	And then people started running through the tent saying there's a fire. Okay, there's really a fire.
0:50.9	Jesus effing Christ, Sadie. Oh no. I know. I got a move on.
0:55.2	Sadie's telling me to get out.
0:57.4	The Brazilians are being set and they speak the language.
1:01.2	Well, what happened?
1:02.8	It seems to have been an electrical issue.
1:05.0	Something caught fire.
1:06.1	There was a huge blaze enveloping part of the tent.
1:09.9	At least a dozen people were treated for smoke inhalation.
1:13.5	Tens of thousands of us were evacuated. But when I ran out of the tent, the first thing I did
1:18.3	was find this guy named Andres Gomez. Because Emily, today's podcast, it's not about the fire.
1:25.1	It's about what was supposed to happen,
1:27.5	just 15 minutes after the fire broke out.
1:31.7	Andres is from Colombia,
1:33.2	and he was working with the Colombian government
1:35.3	and a group of about 20 other countries
	...

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