Hello, my name is Nick Breeze, I am a climate journalist/interviewer and have been covering the COPs since Paris. I post all my interviews on my own site GENN.cc as well as other places. It is a great pleasure to be here with you this morning. Why are we here? Pooran contacted me after watching my recent interview with Sir David wanting to do something to raise awareness and help contribute to a better outcome than what we are currently facing.
Pooran Desai is my cohost and has been working in the eco field for over 3 decades where he created the UK’s first low carbon eco-village called BedZed outside London. He was also instrumental in the development of what are now the UN Development goals and is the founder of One Planet in the UK.
Panel: Sir David King is the UK’s former Chief Government scientist and currently is the founding chair of both the Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG) set-up as an agile group of world-leading experts providing real-time reporting on the climate crisis, as well as setting up the Centre for Climate Repair in Cambridge – which I am sure we will talk more about today.
Professor Alice Hill was the White House special Advisor to President Obama and also director of the National Security Council specifically working on climate change and pandemic planning. Alice has just published her book, ‘The Fight For Climate After COVID19’ – which is a very pragmatic handbook to why we need a global scaled-up adaptation and resilience programme.
Jakapita Kandanga is a youth activist from Namibia and with Fridays For Future. Jakapita will be able to tell us what is going on in Namibia that has brought her to Glasgow. It is also worth highlighting that the F4F organisation has a characteristic that is necessary if we are to effectively face the challenge of climate – it is the in-built multilateralism that enables them to build solidarity around the world. This is sadly missing in the world of political discourse.
Professor Kevin Anderson is known to many for his steadfast approach in analyzing the noise that comes out of the COP process. One of his statements in Bonn a few years ago has travelled very well: in his own view, we have a 95% chance of going to 4ºC on our current emissions pathway. The 5% chance of success is actually a choice – so today one clear question is what does success look like?
Unfortunately, Dr Saleemul Huq from Bangladesh has been unable to make it due to commitments with his delegation. However, Saleem did point out in our call about a month ago that success in Bangladesh has been largely down to having an informed citizenry and that stems from good leadership. That is a theme that runs through all of the speakers’ perspectives I think.
Sir Dave, can you tell us what you are seeing as the major signal that the reality of the climate system is catching up with the ‘ambition’ of the COP process? Alice, with your experience with the inner workings of the US State, how do mobilise the pragmatic actions that you outline in your book, perhaps give an example? Jakapita, you have come from Namibia, a frontline climate impact nation, what is the story you are telling at COP26? Kevin – can we recap on where we are at COP26 – do you see signals here that might bend the emissions curve and are we right to start talking about adaptation?
Questions from the floor – Summary – emergent points that come out of the session. We will compile a post COP video, that will be informed by this session.
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Nick – this has been an excellent panel session. Congratulations for putting together such an outstanding round-up of the major issues at stake during Glasgow COP26. I will circulate a copy of your panel session to the entire ICES Foundation network.
Best,
BB.