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Counting down to zero, the final warning from a climate diplomat by Peter Betz, read by Andrew

McGregor.

Before Peter Betz died in 2023, he wanted to pass on what he had learned over many years of negotiating at Cops,

including how Paris 2015 was saved at the last bell.

Thank you. On the 15th of March 2022, I was on a video call with a dear friend when I experienced a twitching on the left-hand side of my face and a slurring of my speech.

My wife Fiona took me to hospital because we both thought I was having a stroke, and I spent the journey in the car adjusting to my probable

death. Interestingly, I did not feel fear or anger, only sadness and disappointment that

it was all going to end sooner than I had expected.

I survived, but six days later we learned that the cause of my condition was a particularly aggressive form of brain tumour called a glioblastoma.

Since then I have read a number of accounts written by cancer sufferers.

Many of them start with an uncertain diagnosis, often with a reasonable percentage chance of survival.

But unlike these accounts, it was absolutely clear that the tumor would kill me.

There was no cure, and I was given the median life expectancy of 15 to 18 months.

Of course, I hoped to do better than the median, but the medical team said that clinging to

that possibility would probably be a mistake, because it would distract me from enjoying the time

I had left. My immediate reaction was genuinely to recognise that in some respect I was lucky.

...