Covering the ground: trees and COP26
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 4 November 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At the global climate summit, more than 100 countries have promised to end deforestation by 2030. Similar promises have been made before, but might this time be different? America’s Supreme Court dives into the thorny topics of abortion and gun rights. And we report on the peculiar economics of African cities where the UN has set up shop.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. I'm your host, Patrick Lane, |
| 0:09.6 | filling in for Jason Palmer. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events |
| 0:14.9 | shaping your world. This week, America's Supreme Court has been pondering the hot issues of abortion and guns. |
| 0:24.6 | The conservative leaning court may strike down Texas' controversial abortion law, but that's unlikely to be its last word. |
| 0:32.5 | And it looks like lifting restrictions on gun licensing in New York. |
| 0:38.5 | Cities looking for an economic Philip might consider inviting the United Nations to set up shop. |
| 0:45.2 | The areas around its African offices have their own rather upmarket economies. |
| 1:08.1 | But first, few expected that the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow would be a spectacular or immediate success. |
| 1:12.7 | But the week has yielded a number of pledges towards meeting the global temperature targets set in Paris six years ago. More than 40 countries have agreed to phase out |
| 1:20.2 | the use of coal by 2030 or 2040. Although that said, some of the biggest burners and miners, |
| 1:27.0 | including America, Australia, China and India, haven't signed up. |
| 1:32.9 | America and the European Union have promised to cut emissions of methane, the gas responsible for more warming than any other, except carbon dioxide. |
| 1:41.8 | And more than 100 world leaders have promised to end deforestation by 2030. They include President Joe Biden. It is this simple. Let's get to work. We can do this. But also President Vladimir Putin, who noted in his speech that a fifth of the world's forests are in Russia. |
| 2:00.9 | ...Rosolish around 20% of the world's |
| 2:05.0 | ...Lestnich... Getting such agreement between leaders is difficult. |
| 2:08.9 | Seeing the promises through much harder, not least when it comes to deforestation. |
| 2:15.3 | In the arsenal of things that can be done to tackle climate change, |
| 2:18.3 | there's this perception that trees are the simplest thing that you can do, |
| 2:21.7 | that they're the easiest to understand, and all you have to do is plant a tree. |
| 2:25.9 | Catherine Braik is the economist's environment editor, |
| 2:29.2 | and one of the team on, to a lesser degree, |
| 2:31.5 | our sister podcast, about tackling climate change. |
... |
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