The future of climate science without US support
Zero: The Climate Race
Bloomberg
4.8 • 295 Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is responsible for collating our shared scientific understanding of how global warming is impacting the planet. But the body now faces a challenge after the US withdrew funding for its scientists to participate. Professor Jim Skea, who chairs the IPCC, joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to talk about the body’s future, whether the organisation can survive the US pullback, and what questions the next set of reports are going to answer.
Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Olivia Rudgard, Eric Roston, Sommer Saadi, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Your best data center has optimized every drop of water. |
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| 0:10.0 | But you don't have just one data center. You have several data centers across the globe. |
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| 0:24.5 | better impact. Ecolab. Now every location is your best location. |
| 0:30.0 | Welcome to Zero. I am Akshadrati. This week, the future of climate science. |
| 0:47.6 | Yeah. the future of climate science. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was founded in 1988 as a United Nations body |
| 0:53.1 | that provides impartial advice to governments |
| 0:56.4 | about the state of climate science. It is best known for producing its assessment reports |
| 1:01.5 | roughly every five years and they form the basis of policies around the world. The last set of |
| 1:08.3 | reports known as AR6 were released between 2021 and 23 and made headlines |
| 1:13.4 | around the world for saying that it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, |
| 1:19.7 | ocean and land. It may sound obvious now, but the level of evidence needed for all scientists to |
| 1:26.6 | agree on unequivocal is nothing short of staggering. |
| 1:31.0 | And that's why it made front-page headlines around the world. |
| 1:34.7 | The IPCC's next set of reports, called AR7, are due to be released between 2028 and 29. |
| 1:41.9 | And while they no longer need to prove that Cubans are causing climate change, |
| 1:46.0 | these reports will form the basis of the next set of government policies and targets. |
| 1:51.0 | It's vital work. |
| 1:53.0 | And when the reports come out, they will make front page headlines again. |
| 1:57.0 | But the organization is now operating in a much more challenging environment. |
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