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Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronimich.

It's the virtual space where you, me, the top experts, and 28 minutes come together to

understand one of the big issues of the day.

And they don't come bigger than the climate crisis, where recent developments

in China and America may have begun to shift the dial towards action. So what's changing on

climate change? In the year of the pandemic, it's been easy to forget that other greater crisis that threatens the globe, climate change.

But towards the end of this year, thousands of miles apart, there were two big developments.

There was China committing itself to net-zero carbon emissions by 2060,

and America, electing a new president, committed to a huge green energy program

and to rejoining international efforts to combat climate change.

So this week, we want to know what chance now at the world avoiding meltdown.

Step into the briefing room, and together we'll find out.

First, let's get clear what this net zero target means and what it is aiming to do. I'm joined now

in the briefing room by Mark Maslin. He's a professor of climatology at University College London.

Mark Maslin, let's a professor of climatology at University College London. Mark Maslin,

let's get some facts clear first. By how much has the global temperature risen since, well,

pre-industrial times? And what effects has that rise had? We've already seen a 1.1 degree warming since pre-industrial times, and that's led to about

22 centimetre rise in sea level, which doesn't seem much, but that's already increased the

amount of coastal flooding we've had around the world.

We've also seen many extreme weather events, such as the Australian and the Californian

wildfires.

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