The Climate Question

Latest Episodes:

Can small islands live with climate change? Aug 20, 2023

Show notes

The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has been raising awareness of the impact that climate change is having on small island nations like hers, from the Caribbean to the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

In addition to facing more extreme weather and temperatures, these islands also have to contend with the threat posed by rising sea levels – which, for some islands, is existential.

In this episode, Qasa Alom speaks to reporters in Fiji and the Maldives about what small island nations can do to survive.

Guests: Dr Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, Director of the Ocean Physics program at NASA Dr Rosanne Martyr-Koller, Coastal Hazards and Adaptation Scientist at Climate Analytics Shahudha Mohamed, on-the-ground reporter in the Maldives Tim Vula, on-the-ground reporter in Fiji Producer: Ben Cooper Researcher: Octavia Woodward Series producer: Simon Watts Editor: China Collins Sound engineers: Hal Haines and Rod Farquhar Production coordinators: Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill

What is Climate Change? Aug 16, 2023

Show notes

Jordan Dunbar introduces The Climate Question's guide to the Climate Change basics - with the help of some friends of the show.

Prof Jim Skea: living in an era of 'global boiling' Aug 09, 2023

Show notes

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 discuss how worried we should be, and the challenges ahead as he takes up the most important role in global climate science.

Producer: Ben Cooper Researcher: Isobel Gough Series producer: Simon Watts Editor: China Collins Sound Engineers: Graham Puddifoot and Neil Churchill Production Coordinators: Gemma Ashman, Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill

Meet the Climate Quitters: Part One Aug 06, 2023

Show notes

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 sustainable business campaigner.

Presenter: Luke Jones Series Producers: Alex Lewis and Simon Watts Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell Editor: China Collins

Can we have a climate-friendly death? Jul 30, 2023

Show notes

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 climate cost of the most common choices, and hears from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s daughter, Rev. Mpho Tutu van Furth, about her surprise at her father’s final act on earth.

Producer: Osman Iqbal Researcher: Octavia Woodward Series Producer: Simon Watts Editor: China Collins Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell Production Coordinators: Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill

How are Afghans fighting climate change? Jul 23, 2023

Show notes

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, financial aid to help locals adapt has drastically dropped, leaving Afghans to take matters into their own hands. Presenters Graihagh Jackson and Barry Sadid hear how the diaspora are helping villages back home to build life-saving dams and protect themselves against flood and drought. And we ask if there’s a way for foreign governments to financially support Afghanistan without legitimising the Taliban.

Producers: Jordan Dunbar and Barry Sadid from BBC Monitoring Series Producer: Simon Watts Editor: China Collins Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell Production Coordinators: Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill

Climate Change and El Nino: Can we handle both? Jul 16, 2023

Show notes

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 with El Nino, but managed to use it to their advantage.

Presenter Graihagh Jackson is joined by: Tom Di Liberto, Meteorologist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in the US Dr George Adamson, Senior Lecturer in Geography, King's College London Dr Laila Shahzad, Disaster Risk expert at Government College, Lahore.

Producer: Osman Iqbal BBC reporter in Peru: Guillermo Olmo Research: Octavia Woodward and Matt Toulson Sound: Tom Brignell Series Producer: Simon Watts Editor: China Collins

What's the cost of fashion to the climate? Jul 09, 2023

Show notes

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 Kate Lamble and Sophie Eastaugh are- • Vanessa Friedman, New York Times Fashion Editor • Lily Cole Fashion model, actress and podcast host ‘Who Cares Wins’ • Phillip Meister, Quantis Sustainability Consulting • Claire Bergkamp, Textile Exchange • Sonya Bhonsle, Global Head of Value Chains, CDP. Producers: Jordan Dunbar and Ben Cooper Researcher: Natasha Fernandez Series Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon

Mia Mottley: helping poorer nations fight climate change Jul 02, 2023

Show notes

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 interviewed Prime Minister Mottley at a crucial climate finance summit in Paris. With time running out in the battle to keep the world below the 1.5C warming threshold, we find out more about her plan, how it works and the progress being made.

Producers: Ben Cooper and Miho Tanaka Researcher: Octavia Woodward Series Producer: Simon Watts Editor: China Collins Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell Production Coordinators: Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill

Does climate change mean a future without coffee? Jun 25, 2023

Show notes

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 Chandrasekhar, journalist at Carbon Brief specialising in land and food

Dr Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at Kew Gardens

Ashley Limaye, journalist at BBC Africa Digital

We love to get your questions and comments, please email them or send a voice note to theclimatequestion@bbc.com

Producers: Ben Cooper and Chris McHugh

Researcher: Louise Byrne

Series Producer: Simon Watts

Editor: China Collins

Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell

Production Coordinators: Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill