July 2023 has been confirmed as the hottest month ever on Earth. A combination of heatwaves across the Northern Hemisphere, unseasonable warmth in parts of South America and Antarctica, and global sea surface temperatures around 0.51°C above the 30-year average, meant it broke all previous records. Climate scientists are now poring over the data, including Prof Jim Skea, the newly-elected chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He joins presenter Graihagh Jackson to discus...
Aug 09, 2023•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Have you thought about quitting your job because of climate change? Research shows more and more people are worried about their career’s impact on the planet. So this week The Climate Question hears from four people from around the world who’ve taken the plunge and done it. Luke Jones meets an air steward who's swapped flying for teaching; a restaurant critic who's become a tree-planter; a fossil fuel company engineer who's switching to working in renewables; and a multinational CEO turned susta...
Aug 06, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Funeral rites are steeped in culture, tradition and faith, with most of the world opting for cremation or burial. However, with new research now revealing the carbon impact of established funeral choices, more people are questioning their cost to the climate. With alternatives such as ‘water cremation’ and ‘eco-burials’ becoming available, will people start to consider another way? Presenter Jordan Dunbar hears about initiatives in India to modify traditional funeral pyres, calculates the climat...
Jul 30, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Climate change has been tightening its grip on the people of Afghanistan, with flood after flood and drought after drought. It’s considered to be one of the most vulnerable countries in the world, not just because it's warming twice as fast as the global average, but because its people’s ability to fight back has been severely hampered by decades of conflict and war. To add insult to injury, Afghanistan has contributed very little to the climate crisis. Since the Taliban takeover two years ago, ...
Jul 23, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scientists say an El Nino weather event has started. Its effects will be felt everywhere in the form of heavier rainfall in some parts of the world and deeper droughts in others. What's the link with Climate Change? And is it making it harder for us to prepare? On this week's edition of The Climate Question, Graihagh gets a briefing on El Nino from a leading expert; we travel to Peru to meet the coastal communities on the front line; and we hear how ancient civilisations not only learned to deal...
Jul 16, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The journey from catwalk, to wardrobe, to landfill is getting shorter and shorter. Our demands for fast fashion mean around 100 billion garments are produced every year. We’re buying more, then wearing them less often. Many will end up in the trash. Not only that, there’s been a big growth in clothes being made out of synthetic materials originating from crude oil. In this updated edition, we ask: can fashion cost less to the climate? and how much progress is the industry making? Speaking to Kat...
Jul 09, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, is on a mission to fight climate change through a radical scheme to reform the international financial system. Called the Bridgetown Initiative, her plan aims to transform global institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank – freeing up billions, maybe even trillions of dollars, for poorer countries that are struggling to cope with the impacts of a hotter planet. Presenter Graihagh Jackson is joined by the BBC’s Climate Editor, Justin Rowlatt, who inte...
Jul 02, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The world loves coffee. We drink two billion cups each day! But it’s very vulnerable to climate change, and millions of coffee farmers are struggling. Rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and diseases are threatening our favourite caffeinated drink and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. But there are solutions. We hear from a coffee farmer in Uganda and taste a new variety that could be a gamechanger for coffee in a warming world. Presenter Sophie Eastaugh is joined by: Aruna Chandra...
Jun 25, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast With the Ukrainian counter-offensive underway, Sophie Eastaugh looks at the climate damage caused by the conflict there and by the recent civil war in Tigray, Ethiopia. Sophie speaks to Lennard de Klerk, a Dutch specialist in carbon accounting, who’s just published the most comprehensive analysis yet of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the fighting in Ukraine. For her part, an environmental researcher in Kyiv tells The Climate Question her country may have an opportunity to build back gree...
Jun 18, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we’re off to Costa Rica, an eco-tourism hotspot in collaboration with BBC’s The Travel Show.The Climate Question gets lots of emails from listeners asking what they can do about climate change. Is it morally justifiable to fly for leisure? Which type of fish is most sustainable? And how can I use my career or free time to help the planet? In this programme a panel of experts answer your questions and run through some of the most effective things you can do to make a difference, wherev...
Jun 11, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast How can you have a successful relationship with someone if you believe passionately in climate action, but they don’t? The fate of our planet can be a divisive, emotive, even frightening issue. It’s something that’s tearing more and more couples and families apart, experts have told us. It’s not easy getting past those differences with the ones we love, but it is possible. We speak to a couple, as well as a mother and daughter, to find out how. And we ask whether the way we talk to our loved one...
Jun 04, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The impacts of climate change are already being felt around the world. Research shows that some groups are disproportionately affected. Women already face many socioeconomic, cultural, and political inequities, with those living in areas heavily impacted by natural disasters related to climate change, such as floods, drought, and coastal erosion, enduring even worse outcomes. So what can be done to address this? Presenter Sophie Eastaugh is joined by: Dr. Mayesha Alam, Vice President of Research...
May 28, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Billions of dollars have been pumped into the promise of a climate-friendly way of producing meat, but is growing a steak in a lab any better for the planet than rearing a cow on a farm? Supporters of the idea say it will dramatically reduce the impact of livestock, which is responsible for about 15% of the world’s planet-warming gases, as well as returning huge amounts of land to nature. But studies suggest cultivating meat in a lab might actually be worse for the planet, at least in the long-r...
May 21, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you are planning a trip, but you want to check the climate impact before choosing how to get there, then beware. Google has been seriously underestimating the carbon footprint of plane flights, and overestimating that of some train journeys. And its calculations don’t just appear in its search results, but also feed the sites of more and more online booking companies, like Skyscanner and Booking.com. To be fair, carbon footprints are actually very hard to get right, as the BBC’s Climate Edito...
May 14, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The idea of cities where everything you need on a daily basis can be reached within a quarter of an hour by foot or bike has grown in popularity in recent years, as local authorities adopt more sustainable approaches to urban planning. In theory, by having work, shopping, education, healthcare, and leisure all within a short distance could reduce dependency on cars, improving personal health and lowering carbon emissions. But the idea of adapting cities in this way hasn’t been universally-welcom...
May 07, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many blame our obsession with economic growth as being one of the biggest drivers of climate change. The United Nations is currently looking at options for what might replace Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the world’s primary go-to indicator of success, taking into account factors including sustainability and the natural environment. If this happens, it would be the biggest shift in how economies are measured since nations first started using GDP in 1953, 70 years ago. Presenter Graihagh Jackso...
Apr 30, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Wind and solar power will play a crucial role in curbing climate change, but what happens to all the worn-out turbines and photovoltaic panels once they are past their best? Most wind turbine blades are almost impossible to recycle, and solar panels are very expensive to disassemble, but efforts are under way to prevent a possible renewable waste mountain. Presenter Graihagh Jackson hears how old wind turbine blades are being turned into everything from bridges to flowerbeds, and we visit one of...
Apr 23, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but the idea of assembling giant solar farms in space and then beaming the renewable energy back down to Earth is gaining real life traction. Some advocates have claimed it could supply all the world’s energy needs by 2050. But how would these solar farms be assembled, how much fuel and money would it take to blast them into space in the first place, and how would we safely beam their energy back to Earth? Sophie Eastaugh and Luke Jones speak to Sa...
Apr 14, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1856, an American woman called Eunice Newton Foote discovered that higher levels of carbon dioxide would warm the planet. But credit for discovering climate change was given to someone else who made the same discovery three years later. We celebrate Foote’s role in early climate science by recreating her little-known experiment and asking if there are some voices that continue to be overlooked in climate science today – and how we overcome these climate blind spots? Presenter Graihagh Jackson...
Apr 09, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast With rolling blackouts and huge waste disposal issues a regular occurrence in large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, we look at how green tech start-ups offer smart, climate-friendly ways to solve the issues holding the region back. In Malawi, our repórter Peter Jengwa meets Admore Chiumia, whose company Green Impact Technologies turns waste into energy. In Zimbabwe, the BBC’s Shingai Nyoka visits AI entrepreneur Leroy Nyangani who’s come up with a way of making solar energy more financially accessi...
Apr 02, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Worsening energy blackouts are crippling South Africa. They’re being caused in part by an over-reliance on ageing coal-fired power stations which can’t produce enough electricity. The government has an ambitious plan to rapidly build up solar and wind power by opening up the grid to private providers. But it’s facing opposition from the coal lobby. Will this electricity crisis be the thing that finally pushes South Africa to implement its climate plan? And can it be implemented in a way that tre...
Mar 26, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The effects of climate change on weather patterns around the world, including seasonal temperatures and rainfalls, are being felt keenly in agriculture – with shifting seasons and varying yields undermining years of habit-formed knowledge and process. Technology experts are helping farmers, including in some of the world’s poorest regions, adapt to the new food production landscape through the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, and machine learning. Presenters Sophie Eastaugh and Luke Jones ...
Mar 19, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Some oil and gas giants are being pushed by shareholders to adopt more climate friendly strategies. An environmental law charity is suing the directors of a global oil company, arguing their climate strategy is not adequate to meet current targets, supported by other shareholders. Elsewhere, a group of investors in another fossil fuel giant, recently unseated multiple board members in an effort to force a change of direction. How effective is this form of activism? Presenter Paul Connolly is joi...
Mar 13, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our warming world is changing the geographical distribution of several animal species. Mosquitoes have been able to colonise new regions, places where they haven’t been found before including Afghanistan and countries in Europe. According to the World Health Organisation, dengue fever is the most critical mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. Globally there’s been a 30-fold increase in infections in the last 50 years. But is there a way to prevent the spread of the disease? Presenter Paul C...
Mar 05, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Record-breaking temperatures in the Alps in Europe have led to a disappointing ski season so far. Some slopes have been more brown than white, while others have been forced to close all together. Many worry this is a bad omen for the whole industry – which employs thousands globally. This is part of a wider trend of unpredictable weather. Some ski resorts are trying to adapt, by making artificial snow for example, but these short-term measures aren’t always sustainable. It’s predicted that the A...
Feb 26, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Natural gas is often seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to coal, yet it’s a fossil fuel and gives off climate warming emissions when burned. On the internet there are many adverts suggesting that natural gas is a clean and green way to reduce emissions. We investigate whether these adverts mislead the public as to whether gas is really ‘green.’ Presenters Graihagh Jackson and Marco Silva are joined by: Pep Canadell, Executive Director of the Global Carbon Project & Chief Researc...
Feb 20, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast The ocean covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and can hold more than 150 times the amount of carbon dioxide as air. Around a quarter of CO2 emissions created by human activity each year is absorbed by them. From phytoplankton to whales to seagrass meadows, we explore how this happens. And in climate news, we hear about the wildfires and drought affecting Chile. Hosts Jordan Dunbar and Kate Lamble speak with: Rita Steyn, Contributing Editor at The Marine Diaries and lecturer at University of T...
Feb 12, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast India has made a lot of climate pledges in the last couple of years. They’ve had mixed reviews. Some have applauded the country’s ambition – including committing to a net zero target - while others argue it’s still too reliant on coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels. India is already facing the brutal impacts of a warming planet and, with a population of around 1.4 billion, its energy demand is huge – and growing. But there are reasons to be optimistic. We travel to a rural area near Mumbai to hea...
Feb 05, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2009, the G20 countries pledged to phase out 'inefficient' fossil fuel subsidies, which have long been seen as an obstacle to fighting climate change. But today, subsidies for oil and gas producers are at record levels -- $64 billion in 2021. It’s not just to do with the war in Ukraine. Despite its image as a leader on climate change, the UK is listed as one of the worst offenders for government support to oil and gas producers because of its generous tax relief. We hear from the centre of th...
Jan 29, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average temperature. Ice caps are melting, forcing the indigenous Inuit community living around the Northwest passage to change their way of life. Polar bears and wildlife are losing their habitats and the ability to hunt. Further south, Middle Eastern countries are facing temperatures above 50 Celsius more regularly. We speak to people living in these rapidly warming parts of the world and find out why their countries are warming faster th...
Jan 22, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
