00:00Joining us now to preview the COP31 summit is DW's chief climate reporter, Louise Osborne.
00:06Louise, I have to say, you know, every year we hear the same refrain.
00:10Getting a deal on climate change is absolutely crucial and we're running out of time.
00:16What will make this year's summit any different or more crucial than years past?
00:22I mean, I think that we are really seeing the impacts of climate change increasingly.
00:27In Europe this year, for example, we had a very, very hot summer with many people dying and being more
00:36affected by that.
00:37We've had unprecedented wildfires. There were the landslides as a result of glacial melt in Nepal.
00:44The effects are really being felt.
00:47And this year happens to be a little bit warmer because of the El Nino, this climate phenomenon that is
00:54also having an impact.
00:55It is showing us, though, what climate change is bringing for us in the future.
01:01Global leaders had said that they wanted to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
01:08The UN has now said that it is unavoidable that we are going to go over that limit and that
01:14these extreme weather events, as a result, are going to get worse.
01:18And so the pressure is on this year for leaders to now acknowledge that that is going to happen, that
01:25in some ways they have failed to do that,
01:28and to look at how they can bring temperatures back down once they have overshot that critical limit.
01:34The pressure may be on within the climate community, if I can even use that term.
01:40But are people really focused on climate change, given the fact that so many of us are preoccupied with war
01:48or dealing with the consequences of it, even from afar?
01:53I mean, I think that climate change has definitely fallen down the political agenda as a result of the conflict
01:58that is happening.
02:00But actually, many of these issues are intertwined anyway.
02:05Some of the impacts of war that we have been seeing, the Iran war, for example, has brought up fuel,
02:11energy and food prices,
02:14which is having a huge impact on people all over the world.
02:19The global community needs to look at ways that they can ensure energy security so that those things are not
02:26such a big issue.
02:27And one way of doing that is with renewable energy, which uses local installations to make sure people can access
02:35electricity that is generated then through wind or solar and other ways.
02:42That would not only put a cap on prices and make it easier for people to keep their shopping bills
02:49and everything lower,
02:49but it also reduces the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are causing global warming.
02:58So it would have this kind of double impact.
03:01And this is an issue that is going to be talked about.
03:04The conflicts are going to be talked about at the COP31 conference as a result of this.
03:10And transitioning away from fossil fuels and how that can be done more quickly for everyone concerned.
03:16I assume you're going to be watching this very closely when the summit is over in two weeks.
03:22What is the one outcome that will be assigned to you, indication that COP31 actually delivered?
03:29There has to be an agreement that the overshoot of the 1.5 degree limit that global leaders put in
03:37place 10 years ago is unacceptable.
03:40And a determination that this overshoot is going to be as brief as possible and as low as possible so
03:49that they can get back down and bring it back below 1.5 as they agreed to initially.
03:55Well said. DW chief climate reporter Louise Osborne. Always appreciate it. Thanks, Louise.
