Humankind faces a double crisis. We have not worked together to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global warming below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Scientists say this is the level beyond which the resulting climate change will cause catastrophe, for humans and for animals, plants and even geographies. This year, humanity and the global economy have also been ravaged by the effects of Covid-19, which can in some ways be traced back to human encroachment on the habitats of wild animals.
Within this crisis, which some call a tipping point for humanity, lies an opportunity. The ways we work and live have been irrevocably damaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. We have to build anew, and so we have a chance to “build better”.
In September 2019, the world witnessed the largest-ever protests against a lack of action on climate change from global leaders, led in the main by children and teenagers. Today, we hear from two of them, and from the woman credited with overseeing the groundbreaking 2015 Paris Agreement, which set United Nations member states on a new path to a greener future.
