When people ask me what I do I say I write about the end of the world.
But of course what I'm really writing about is why we avoid the end of the world.
The environment is a story that is everything because it is about people,
science, business, politics,
but it's also really about something bigger than all of that.
And over the past 18 years that I've been writing about the environment
it's extraordinary how bad things have become.
I think people have a sense that there isn't a great deal that can be done
or that maybe these problems are not solvable,
but they are.
All of these problems are made by people and people can solve them.
Covering the environment you need to have a very optimistic personality really
because you are confronted with so much doom and gloom on a daily basis
that if you didn't think that it was worth solving in the first place
you wouldn't be able to do it.
This is about our future,
this is about people,
this affects everyone on the planet.
The most important thing for a journalist is to be there
when stuff is happening,
to be a first-hand witness of events.
World governments are gathering here today to discuss action on climate change.
I went to my first Cop in 2004
and I've been to almost every one since then.
The most important thing about these Cops, these is international climate meetings,
is when you realise every country in the world is present.
Some people think that they're useless and pointless
because they don't actually solve the climate crisis.
It's true that they won't solve the climate crisis on their own,
but if we didn't have them we would be in a much worse state.
And the only way to get governments to make progress
is by sitting them in a room with other governments
and not letting them come out until they've achieved something.
It's an honour to speak to you today for the first time as Cop president.
Cop26 in Glasgow was always going to be absolutely vital,
because at that Cop we got people to focus on 1.5 degrees.
The window to keep 1.5 degrees within reach is closing.
Scientists have told us very clearly
that if we go beyond the 1.5 degrees we will find consequences
to the climate crisis that are catastrophic and that become irreversible.
You led Cop26 possibly the most important climate summit that we've ever had.
We did get a really important agreement but it was rather a fragile agreement.
How did that feel?
I genuinely thought there was a point at which the whole thing was going to collapse.
I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders, because I felt this was on me.
Could I ask whether distinguished delegates,
having heard the proposal, is this proposal agreeable to you?
China and India came up and said they wouldn't agree
to some of the wording around coal.
Everyone else had agreed to the phaseout,
but they would only agree to a phase down.
When you're talking about a really intricate international agreement
trying to change the words like that at the last minute can be absolutely fatal.
We do not need to phase down but to phase out coal and fossil fuel subsidies.
What was just read out to us is a further disappointment.
Our profound disappointment.
I apologise for the way this process has unfolded,
I am deeply sorry, but I think as you have noted
it's also vital that we protect this package.
Of course I would have liked the stronger language on phaseout to stay in place,
but nevertheless I was being told literally up until that morning
I was getting texts where people were saying to me, "Good try on coal
you know it's probably not going to be in the final text."
And despite the fact that there were some changes on the language
we were trusted to get this this over the line
and we did.
Hearing no objections it is so decided.
So here we are in Glasgow today at the Cop26 summit
everything that's happening inside that conference
all these promises and fine words from the world leaders, they're hollow.
Cop26 was supposed to be our best chance of saving the planet.
Was it?
The idea that we should put our hopes on these international negotiations to sort this out
I think is completely wrong.
Throughout the 30 years that these negotiations have been happening
emissions have gone up pretty much every single year
and you know they're at a whole time record high in terms of the atmospheric concentrations of CO2.
Which at the end of the day
if we're concerned about climate change is the only thing that matters
to the temperature of the planet.
So all of this negotiations has amounted to nothing
in terms of the real world impacts on the climate.
It's time for change!
Stop climate change!
Young people I think get this in a way that many older people don't,
partly because we're talking about their future.
I'm 59 and this is not so much my future
the really terrible consequences of climate change
many of them will happen after I'm dead,
but people who are young now will be experiencing them in their lifetimes.
The way we talk about climate change has changed a lot
since I started writing about it and in a good way.
Hi here to remind you again
that the global climate strike is happening this Friday on September 24th
I am so excited ...
Is it frustrating for you to watch so many old people
gathered in rooms deciding the future that they're not even going to live in?
Just seeing leaders not taking the action that we need
and effectively feeling like our futures are just being sold to the highest bidder
and as we've seen we can't rely on these politicians to do the work
because we've been waiting and waiting,
but what's actually really pushed change is people standing up
and fighting back and making their voices heard and
that collective action is so powerful
and so that's why I believe it is the job of all of us
in very different ways.
What we're doing is working,
like we are making noise about it but we need to keep going
and I genuinely believe that we can apply that pressure.
No more fossil fuel investment.
Starting now.
How unusual is it to a scientist to go out and get arrested,
what does it take to drive you to that?
I didn't realise that the world's governments wouldn't be taking action on it,
I didn't realise that all the world's leading fossil fuel companies
would try to undermine the scientific work
that had been done in order to continue destroying the planet.
None of that would have made sense to me growing up,
it still doesn't make sense to me now,
but that's the situation we're in.
I'm at a UN climate conference in Bonn.
Where I'm meeting Patricia Espinosa, the outgoing top climate official of the UN.
Hello secretary Espinosa it's lovely to see you.
So nice to see you too.
Things are not looking good are they for Cop27?
It's not looking good for humanity on any issue.
I am worried that resources may not be forthcoming for climate change as they should.
At the same time none of that changes the reality that the climate crisis is
and remains the biggest existential threat to humanity.
Sometimes I just I just think why are we not able to get there?
And what has kept you going?
You know the youth,
the many people that are doing so much work in this area
that are fully committed to that.
Cop27 will happen in Egypt in Sharm el-Sheikh
and it's not looking good.
It's going to be a situation of conflict really for the Egyptians,
because some of their natural allies, Saudi Arabia for instance,
also Russia are the same countries
that have tried to wreck agreements at Cops in the past.
Their own best interests as they see them, are in selling more fossil fuels.
Hello ambassador.
Hi, Fiona?
Fiona Harvey, from the Guardian.
Really nice to meet you, it's a pleasure.
Ambassador, we're getting very close now to Cop27
when Egypt will take the world stage leading the fight against climate change.
How do you feel about Egypt taking on that enormous role?
Well it's a great responsibility but also it's a great honour.
Sometimes the Cop process can seem just about a load of men in suits.
How is Egypt going to engage people in this this?
This is time for implementation,
science is telling us that we could potentially be the first species to self-extinct.
It's that dire.
You can't do implementation without the science community,
the farmer's community, indigenous peoples, academia, youth, women.
It is just futile to assume that governments alone
will take this challenge on.
People are very worried about representation and inclusion at Cop27,
you concerned about that?
Really concerned about that,
for example a lot of young activists that I've been talking to
have been trying to get to Cop
are actually quite scared to put down their sexuality and forms for example
because of fear of prosecution.
It's been really difficult to actually get youth voices there
because of the location in where it's set in a resort town
in Sharm el-Sheikh and them allowing hotels to charge extortionate fees.
But you're planning to go?
Yes I'm planning to go.
I'm also involved in a culture Cop because we can't protest in Egypt
I think it's a really great way for us to just come together
and you know celebrate community and also learn together and have that space.
At this point I feel that the government's going to continue to make these terrible decisions,
unless there is significant popular demand for them to change.
There was a piece of research done just recently
which talked about the fact that if we added up
all the reserves of the oil, coal and gas companies
and then said how much fossil fuels do they have in total
and then compare that to how much we can still burn to stay within our climate targets,
they have seven times more on their books.
Clearly something is not being translated.
I mean what it's telling us I think is that
the markets don't believe that governments are going to take action.
That simply can't happen if we're to stay within our climate target.
So what's it going to be?
Are we going to accept our governments are going to keep spinning us these lies
about them being climate leaders?
Or are we going to get out in the streets and actually demand that we have a future?
Despite only being a few months old
Just Stop Oil regularly hit the headlines
with stunts designed to disrupt everyday life.
You glued yourself to a painting in the National Portrait Gallery,
why'd you do that?
People don't listen unless we do outrageous things,
what else can we do?
You know we've tried petitions, we've tried marches,
we've tried standing on Parliament Square,
people have gone on hunger strike none of it's worked.
This isn't a protest, we are announcing a civil resistance
and I want to be able to look back and say that I did everything I could
to try and prevent this catastrophe.
Right here in the UK a lot of people are realising having these oil and gas projects
isn't helping lower my energy bills
maybe renewables are the answer.
You know kind of seeing these companies create record-breaking profits
while people are suffering I think is a clear example of also what's happening with the climate crisis.
This is one of the most mind-boggling things about this whole problem
is that we actually have the solutions,
we can solve this crisis,
but we're being stopped from getting there.
Ultimately it's going to be decision-makers
making better decisions that will solve this.
So whose job is it to fix climate change problem?
It's all our jobs.
Everyone can play a part but of course ultimately
the big decisions are made by governments,
they're made by world leaders, they're made by business leaders
and that's why it's so important that the commitments they made at Cop26
are actually delivered upon.
When we talk about who's job it is, we need to make sure that everyone
knows what role they can play
and it doesn't have to be a burden.
Having a better more liveable planet
saving the planet is not a burden, it's a really good thing,
it's a positive thing something to celebrate.
Something we should all enjoy.
I'm here finally at the Cop27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
Where 110 world leaders are about to arrive to talk about the climate crisis.
What's at stake here is trying to keep a liveable planet
and after all the promises that have been made this year
well now it's time to see them fulfilled.