POD – We need to act instantly, rapidly and fair if we shall meet the Paris Agreement – Kevin Anderson

Kevin Anderson is the Zennström Visiting Professor in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University in Sweden. He is also professor of energy and climate change at the University of Manchester and the deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He also has a background as an engineer primarily within the oil industry, which is not that common among climate scientists.

Kevin is also one of the world’s leading researchers on carbon budgets, which very simply explained is the calculation of how much carbon dioxide we globally still can release into the atmosphere before we reach a two degrees temperature rise compared to pre-industrial time. It can´t be emphasized enough that the amount of carbon dioxide that we still can release is very small! And needs to be divided fairly between all countries. Important to highlight is also the fact that we can´t rely on negative emissions technology, that does not yet exist, to save us in the future.

The Paris climate agreement state that we need to do our very best to stay below a two degrees rise, but we have already past one degree temperature rise and the situation is severe. We need to act immediately, rapidly, extensively and fair if we are going to have the slightest chance to meet the Paris agreement.

In this episode you will hear us discuss both how the world so far has chosen to fail when it comes to preventing climate change, but also what we still can and need to do to have a chance to meet the Paris agreement and a prosperous world. The importance of good examples, strong leadership and that we should talk more about our actions with others are brought up as well.

Warmly welcome to listen to a very interesting and important talk with climate scientist Kevin Anderson.

Signature tune: Claes Bonde

Kevin Anderson

TakeActionTalks is a Swedish podcast focusing on questions concerning climate change and sustainability. The aim of the podcast is to close the gap between science and public and inspire and engage towards a quicker transformation to a sustainable world. In short it is about talks that lead to action and, equally important, talks about our actions that can inspire to more action. This is the first episode in English but keep your eyes open for possibly more to come and please share if you like it.