COP29: Are climate summits working?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

This year is set to be the world’s hottest on record, likely shattering the aspiration to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

So where does this leave COP29, the upcoming UN climate conference in Azerbaijan?

This week Inside Science is asking, are climate summits really working? What is the point of them - and are they doing enough?

Joining Marnie Chesterton to discuss this are:

- Joanna Depledge, expert on international climate negotiations at the University of Cambridge - Mark Maslin, climate change professor from University College London (UCL) - Jim Watson, professor of energy policy, also from UCL

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Ella Hubber, Sophie Ormiston & Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

If you want to test your climate change knowledge, follow the links on this page to The Open University to take a quiz.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.
0:08.0	But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA
0:12.0	was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.
0:18.0	Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day,
0:24.0	who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA.
0:28.5	Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:38.0	Hello, it's cop time.
0:40.5	And as this year's annual climate summit comes around this time in Azerbaijan,
0:45.0	Inside Science asks, are annual climate change summits working?
0:49.5	What's the point of them?
0:50.8	And are they really doing enough?
0:53.1	Questions that go to the heart of how we solve the
0:55.8	climate crisis in the face of yet more bleak environmental news. In recent weeks, we've watched
1:02.2	scenes of devastation and deadly flooding in parts of Spain, and we've had a warning from the UN that
1:08.7	the world is on track to warm by a catastrophic 3.1 degrees C by the end of the century, if we keep going as we are.
1:16.7	There seems to be a huge gulf going on between what is happening to limit global warming and what actually needs to happen.
1:23.5	Joining me to discuss this is a panel of experts.
1:26.3	We have Joanna DePledge from University of Cambridge, an expert on international climate negotiations. We have Mark Maslin, climate change professor from University College London, and Jim Watson, Professor of Energy Policy, also from UCL. Welcome all.
1:40.7	Hello. Hello. Thank you all for being here. The first UN COP summit was in 1995, so that's nearly 30 years of these talks.
1:50.9	Joanna, which of these summits has been most successful?
1:54.4	So which has been a significant step forward and why?
1:57.6	Oh, wow.
	...

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