COP30: Examining The Results And Broken Process (w/ Oliver Milman and Joseph Winters)

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Another annual UN climate change conference is in the books. So, what did it accomplish? This week, The Guardian's Oliver Milman joins the show to breakdown the results of COP30. We discuss why many thought the conference was underwhelming, the final decisions on a fossil fuel phaseout, finance for adaptation, and improving Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). We also talk about the lack of agreement on combating deforestation, the United States failing to show up to COP30, and what's still being said about the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Finally, we discuss the crazy fire that broke out during the conference and Oliver's experience covering more optimistic conversations on Artificial Intelligence.

Next, Joseph Winters, who wrote the piece "UN climate talks are built on consensus. That's part of the problem." for Grist joins the show to discuss why so many think the COP process is broken and why it's still super complicated to try to fix it. We look at potential solutions like a majority vote on big decisions as well as more creative ideas to reform consensus. We also examine how these solutions compare to other UN agreements.

Read Oliver Milman's reporting here and his book The Insect Crisis

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