Can we trust governments to tackle the climate emergency?

On Monday, September 20 at 19:30 GMT:
On Friday, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said if carbon emissions are not scaled back, the world will continue to be on a “catastrophic pathway” toward 2.7 degree Celsius heating. But is the threat of even more dangerous levels of global warming enough to finally convince governments into making the ambitious changes necessary to avoid a further climate catastrophe?

In the latest warning from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists say that unabated greenhouse gas emissions are pushing global temperatures and sea levels up faster than expected. An effective global response will require the world’s richest countries to commit to significant reductions in burning fossil fuels.

The UN is using this week’s General Assembly meeting to build momentum on climate action ahead of November’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. Also central to the UN’s agenda is climate financing for smaller countries that may be struggling to adapt to climate change.

But governments of the world’s largest economies are all still failing to meet commitments made in 2015 during the landmark Paris climate change agreement.

In the first of three shows in partnership with the UN General Assembly, we’ll discuss how governments are responding to climate change. Does the political will exist for a multilateral solution to the climate emergency?

On this episode of The Stream, we speak with:
Selwin Charles Hart, @SelwinHart
UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Action

Nisreen Elsaim, @NisreenElsaim
Chair of UN Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change

Ko Barrett, @KoBarrettIPCC
Vice-Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)