In this interview with the Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Professor Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, gives her perspective on a range of critical issues - in part presenting a glass-half-full perspective, despite so many mounting challenges.

This was recorded on Saturday 16th Nov at the midway point through COP29. Since the COP has ended, countries have finalised a $300 billion dollar pledge to vulnerable nations set against a required $1.3 trillion by 2035. Trust between so-called developed and developing or vulnerable nations remains stubbornly low. But meeting the $1.3 trillion required funding is not a charity gift, but rather a collaborative investment in all our futures. Until we collectively realise the only way forward is with all hands seen as equal, the fate for us all remains entirely bleak.

More COP29 interviews are on the way as well as an interview this week with the author of a new study on the state of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) that risks up-ending all our climate rhetoric to date.

If you want a fast paced journey through the last eight COPs from Paris to the UAE then order my book COPOUT online, in paperback or audio, from all main retailers. This was my 9th COPOUT experience and I’ll be writing a supplementary chapter in the coming weeks that will include astonishing in-person admissions from delegates of fossil fuel producing nations as well as forays into the north of Azerbaijan through decimated landscapes and threadbare ecosystems.

Thanks to all subscribers!

Summary:

Is the climate glass half full or half empty? IPCC Vice Chair Prof. Diana Ürge-Vorsatz