The Climate Question

If there were fewer of us, would the amount of greenhouse gasses we emit reduce? It’s a question that often creeps up in discussions about climate change. Studies show that the global population will decline eventually and populations in many rich nations are already declining. However, 11,000 scientists signed a paper warning of “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless society transfor...

We’ve been told that big finance is crucial to the transition to net zero, and billions of dollars are invested in so-called sustainable finance every year. But the BBC’s Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt, together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, have been looking into a new green finance product and found that not all is quite as it seems. Their investigation has found an example of sust...

Africa accounts for around 10 per cent of the world's known fossil-fuel reserves. But plans to build an oil pipeline through East Africa to transport hundreds of thousands of barrels a day have been condemned by the European Union. The pipeline, which runs from the source in Uganda to the Tanzanian coast, will generate billions of dollars a year. But critics say it will release tens of millions of...

We know many of the obstacles in the way of a creating a cleaner planet - making cement green, decarbonising electricity or creating affordable clean transport. But how do we get the experts the funding they need to bring these solutions to the world? Many people see innovation prizes as the answer - from Prince William’s ‘Earthshot’ to Elon Musk’s ‘X-Prize’ there are hundreds of millions of dolla...

From being glued to diggers to bunking off school, what happens when the public takes climate action into their own hands? Mass protests and demonstrations can be an effective way to gain media attention but do they lead to lasting change? Kate Lamble and Neal Razzell are joined by: Disha Ravi, climate activist, India Dan Hooper, (Swampy), climate activist, UK Mel, member of Scientist Rebellion, M...

The race to reduce emissions has more and more nations reaching for the nuclear option. Nuclear power plants are being built around the world, generating carbon-free electricity day and night, windy or calm. But they also generate radioactive waste, some of which can remain deadly for thousands of years. Thousands of tonnes of nuclear waste currently sit in “temporary” sites, some decades old. Thi...

Floods in Pakistan have destroyed or damaged millions of homes, schools and businesses. So far nearly 1500 people have died and 33 million have been affected. With Pakistan contributing less than 1% to global CO2 emissions, a keen sense of injustice is felt in the country, and demands for international support have been made. The Pakistan government has called it a “climate catastrophe” and accord...

As climate change brings rising temperatures and shifting patterns of rainfall, animals are adapting to keep pace. Bird’s bodies are growing smaller, their wingspan longer, lizards are growing larger thumb pads to help them grip more tightly in hurricane strength winds, beak size is changing. We visit the Galapagos, where evolution was first discovered by Charles Darwin, to investigate the many wa...

Images are a key part of communicating climate change, and shape how we understand the crisis unfolding around us. But while lots of research has been done into the language we use to talk about climate, images are often left out of the conversation. As a result, over time, a limited set of images have come to dominate how we think of climate change – like polar bears and melting glaciers - which...

In 1985 British scientist Jonathan Shanklin and colleagues published a study that shocked the world. The study revealed a hole in the Earth’s atmosphere right over Antarctica. It had been caused over time by chemicals known as CFCs, used in things like fridges, air conditioning units and aerosol cans. These were destroying the layer of ozone in the stratosphere which protects us from most of the s...

From the Aztecs to the Zoroastrians, humans have always prayed for rain. We’ve tried dances, ritual sacrifices and even blowing up the sky to boost rainfall. This might sound crazy but desperate times call for desperate measures. Climate change is making people desperate again, in some regions droughts are becoming more frequent and pervasive whereas in others floods threaten livelihoods and citie...

In rural North East Spain, proposals to build hundreds of new wind turbines have sparked opposition and divided communities. And it isn’t only Spain. There has been resistance to wind power projects across the world from Mexico to the US. Opposition groups have succeeded in delaying, and sometimes cancelling, the construction of new wind farms. To move away from fossil fuels, we will need a huge e...

The Ocean, it covers more than 70% of the surface if our planet, it provides us with food, medicine and even influences the weather. For years its also helped to mitigate the effects of climate change. Since the 1970’s over 90% of atmospheric warming caused by green house gas emissions has been absorbed by our Oceans. But this comes at a cost. Overtime their temperatures have risen and this has ha...

Shopping online is nothing new but with the rise of influencer culture, livestreaming, and social commerce buying stuff has never been easier. Research suggests that the production and use of household goods and services is responsible for about 60% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So is influencer culture making us buy more - contributing to climate change? Or is it more complicated than that?...

We know from The Climate Question back catalogue, solving climate change is a knotty problem which does not lend itself to quick fixes. But in this programme a panel of experts discuss whether there could be any easy wins on climate change such as putting solar panels across the Earth’s deserts and changing what we eat. Presenter Neal Razzell is joined by: Rebekah Shirley - Director of Research, D...

Since the 1990s, air flight has made the world a smaller place. In one 24-hour period you can fly to the other end of the globe. In an hour you might be able to skip the traffic and fly to the other end of your country. But this convenience comes at a cost….to the climate. Aviation accounts for somewhere between 2 to 5% of the world’s emissions. And as the world’s desire to travel proves insatiabl...

The development of agriculture some 12,000 years ago changed the way humans live. As technologies have developed we’ve become more and more efficient at producing large amounts of food and feeding an ever growing population, often with the help of synthetically produced nitrogen fertiliser. These fertilisers can damage ecosystems. They also produce a potent greenhouse gas called Nitrous Oxide whic...

Cycling is healthy, cheap - and as modes of transport go, they don’t come much greener. Worldwide, transport is responsible for nearly a quarter of all carbon emissions, with road transport alone accounting for 75% of that. But so far, most discussions on greening the transport sector have focussed on electrifying our cars, trucks and buses – overlooking the vital role that bicycles could play in...

Along almost every tropical coastline you can find the tangled roots of mangrove trees, a natural barrier against extreme weather. They are also one of the most powerful weapons we have for fighting climate change. Mangrove forests are six times better at capturing carbon than tropical forests. But in the last 40 years up to a third of mangrove forests worldwide have disappeared. Joining presenter...

Scientists estimate that peatlands around the world hold about 350 billion tonnes of carbon. The tropical peatland of the Congo Basin – known as Cuvette Centrale - are thought to store the equivalent of 20 years of US fossil fuels emissions. BBC Africa Correspondent Andrew Harding has been up to his neck in it, witnessing the work being done by scientists to protect it and what might threaten its...

Reduce, reuse, recycle is a familiar mantra the world over. Recycling has been described as ‘one of the easier climate-friendly acts” that individuals can do. A recent poll found that, globally, most of us believe that recycling is the single best thing we can do to tackle the climate crisis. But there isn’t much mention of “reduce” and “reuse”. This week, presenters Kate Lamble and Neal Razzell e...

We often talk about the physical costs of climate change; the economic fallout, the effect on livelihoods and damage to the earth. But all of the changes to our world caused by global warming will have an effect on our minds, our mental health too. Earlier this year the mental health challenges caused by rising temperatures and extreme weather events were spotlighted in a report by the UN’s climat...

Long term climate policy has long been at odds with short-term politics. As numerous countries head to the polls this year, we visit Brazil, Australia and the United States and see how climate policy is being used as a political tool to divide voters. During recent the elections in Australia – a country with some of the world’s highest emissions per capita – experts believe that experiencing the e...

Recent research shows that levels of Methane gas in the atmosphere are rising rapidly. It is over 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide so poses a major threat to the world’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 C. At COP26, over 100 countries signed a Global Methane Pledge to reduce man-made emissions by 2030 – experts say cutting methane emissions is ‘the most powerful l...

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. Jordan Dunbar and Kate Lamble are joined by: Rita Steyn, Contributing Editor at The Marine Diaries and lecturer...