The Climate Summit Blues

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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2021

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

The U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland concluded last weekend—the 26th “Conference of Parties.” After more than two decades of these promises, it’s worth wondering how much of this is all just hot air. According to the non-profit Climate Action Tracker, not a single country is on target to meet the COP21 pledge, also known as the Paris Climate Accords, and many aren’t even on target for their COP3 pledge, the Kyoto Protocol.

And yet, these summits are often still covered with breathless play-by-play analysis: all the juicy details about diplomatic attaches, late-night negotiation, and backroom deals. Which is not without value, but it’s worth asking: what are the stories being missed when all eyes are on the summit? To answer that, we called Nathaniel Rich, writer-at-large for the New York Times Magazine, who takes a markedly different approach.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland concluded last weekend the 26th Conference of
0:10.8	Arties.
0:11.8	We know that this COP, COP26, is our last best hope to keep 1.5 in reach.
0:19.5	That's 1.5 degrees Celsius.
0:22.3	The amount of temperature-change policy makers at the conference hope their collective action
0:27.1	can achieve.
0:28.7	Saving off the two-degree change that spells out a certain planetary destruction.
0:34.9	To get there, this year's conference featured speeches, negotiations, lots of pledges,
0:40.5	not too dissimilar from last year's or the year before that.
0:44.6	We have come to Paris to show our resolve.
0:49.1	Nearly 200 nations have assembled here this week.
0:52.5	In a few days, COP and Hagen begins, and I am more confident than ever before, that
0:57.2	it will be the turning point in the fight to prevent climate disaster.
1:00.9	The most important task in this conference is to establish a more concrete international
1:07.1	framework for the protection of global climate.
1:10.5	After more than two decades of these promises, it's worth wondering how much of this is
1:15.2	all just hot air.
1:18.1	According to the non-profit climate action tracker, not a single country is on target to meet
1:24.1	the 2015 Conference of Parties 21 pledge, also known as the Paris Climate Accords.
1:31.9	And many aren't even on target for their COP3 pledge, the Kyoto Protocol from 1992.
1:40.1	And yet, these summits are often still covered with breathless play-by-play analysis.
1:45.7	Juicy details about diplomatic attachés, late-night negotiations, and backroom deals.
	...

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