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Economist Podcasts

COP out: the UN climate talks

Economist Podcasts

The Economist

News & Politics, News

4.35K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2019

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Again, the annual COP conference ran long and ended with disappointment. Why can’t countries agree on what so clearly must be done? One big contributor to the changing climate is meat-eating, and China looks ever more carnivorous. And a new, push-button system to land planes whose pilots are incapacitated. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/radiooffer

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

0:09.6

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

0:17.2

In China, vegetarianism is pretty rare, and most often tied up with religion.

0:22.6

Meat is seen as a relatively newly affordable luxury, and often as a necessary part of a healthy diet.

0:29.6

Chinese health officials are starting to think otherwise.

0:33.6

And every year, there are fatalities when a small aircraft's pilot becomes incapacitated,

0:39.5

and no one aboard can land the plane.

0:42.0

We talk to an engineer who's developed a panic button that can do the job entirely automatically.

1:05.1

First up, though, the logo for this year's UN climate talks held in Madrid was a clock.

1:09.4

The tagline, Tiempo de Actuar, Time for Action.

1:14.3

But the summit, known as COP25, failed to live up to its own slogan.

1:19.2

The decisive action that was hoped for wasn't taken.

1:24.0

The outcome disappointed many, not least some of the NGOs in attendance.

1:30.1

COP25 has not delivered, but we will return stronger in 2020.

1:37.1

We will rise and unleash unprecedented movements if governments keep failing the people and the planets.

1:40.2

There were two main points that we're going to be addressed at these annual climate talks.

1:46.2

Katrina Bragg is our environment editor and was at the conference.

1:50.2

The first was what's known as the question of ambition.

1:54.2

And their large group of countries were looking for reassurance that individual governments

2:00.6

are going to up the ante on their promises

2:02.8

to tackle climate change. And that means bigger and better and faster policies to drastically

2:08.5

cut their greenhouse gas emissions. The second key point at COP25 was the question of the

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