Can Biden woo the world on climate change?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Biden hosts a virtual summit this week as the US seeks global climate action. But can he convince the rest of the world to go further and faster on cutting carbon emissions when the country has been out of the game for the past four years? Justin Rowlatt asks former US climate envoy Todd Stern and Isabel Hilton, founder of China dialogue. And, in a world where some countries are rolling back protections, can consensus still be found? We hear from the heart of the Brazilian rainforest, where the environmental police say they are losing the war against the loggers. Lisa Viscidi, director of the energy and climate change programme at the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank, says the summit provides an opportunity for Latin American countries.
Photo: Climate protestors in Lyon, France hold up a sign saying 'SOS' (Credit: Getty).
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. I'm Justin Rowlat. During the Trump administration, |
| 0:07.6 | tackling climate change wasn't even on the radar. For President Biden, it's right near the top of his |
| 0:13.6 | agenda. He'll be hosting a conference of 40 major economies this week in an effort to raise global |
| 0:19.4 | ambition on the issue. |
| 0:25.6 | The U.S. has been gone for a while and we're back and we mean to be back in a big and constructive and important way. |
| 0:27.4 | But how can the world's biggest economy lead the way on climate change when other countries |
| 0:31.8 | are rolling back protections? |
| 0:33.9 | We hear from the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, where the environmental police say they are losing the war against the loggers. |
| 0:42.6 | In places where we didn't have incidents in the past, now loggers, prospectors, squatters are rioting. |
| 0:51.3 | It has become guerrilla warfare. |
| 0:53.3 | That's all here on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:03.2 | Tackling climate change is set to be one of President Biden's defining policies. |
| 1:08.8 | In my view, we've already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis. |
| 1:12.5 | We can't wait any longer. |
| 1:14.7 | We see it with our own eyes. |
| 1:16.3 | We feel it. |
| 1:17.2 | We know it in our bones. |
| 1:19.3 | The tone could hardly be more different from his predecessor, |
| 1:22.8 | who pulled the world's biggest economy out of a landmark climate deal. |
| 1:35.1 | The United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. |
| 1:42.4 | President Biden announced his intention to rejoin the 2015 Paris Agreement on his first day in office, |
| 1:46.4 | as well as his plan to host what he called a climate ambition conference to coincide with Earth Day tomorrow. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.