Counting the Cost

COP21: Constructive conference or a waste of time?

We explore whether the world will finally agree to a meaningful and binding agreement on carbon emissions.

Climate change has been called the biggest threat facing humanity, yet for years, countries, particularly rich ones, have done nothing to fundamentally tackle the issue.

Global carbon emissions have increased by more than 48 percent since 1992, when the first UN climate change conference took place in Rio de Janeiro.

And with average global temperatures likely to rise by three or four degrees Celsius, scientists have warned that, if emissions continue to rise, we will pass the threshold after which climate change will become catastrophic and irreversible.

With so much at stake, more than 40,000 delegates from 195 countries are attending COP21 in the French capital, Paris – tasked with reaching the first truly universal climate pact.

But will the summit lead to a meaningful agreement on carbon emissions?

On this week’s Counting the Cost we show you the effects of climate change around the world, and hear  all sides of the argument.

Jennifer Morgan, the director of the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute, joins Counting the Cost to discuss whether a deal can be reached.

Benny Peiser, the director of the Global Warming Policy Forum and a critic of the conventional view on global warming, addresses the relevance of such a summit.

Finally, we speak to Atiq Rahman, an environmentalist at the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, on the threat being posed to Bangladesh, a nation which is expected to see 7.2 million people affected by flooding due to the sea level rising between the years 2070 and 2100.