The Climate Question

For centuries, we’ve been reading, watching and listening to science fiction. And all too often, it’s pretty pessimistic about our future, especially when it touches on the topic of climate change. This is leading some to ask whether these doom and gloom stories are doing the climate fight more harm than good - causing us to feel so anxious and powerless that we don’t take action. So for this week's climate question, we’re asking: Is sci-fi holding us back? Graihagh Jackson is joined by:Amy Brady, editor-in-chief of the Chicago Review of Books, where she writes a monthly column called Burning Worlds. In it she explores how fiction addresses climate change. Cheryl Slean is a playwright, filmmaker and educator working with the National Resource Defense Council’s Re-write the Future campaign to increase accurate climate stories in film and television. Ken Liu is a futurist and author of speculative fiction. He has won the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards. His debut novel, The Grace of Kings, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series.

Bangladesh is a country that is exceptionally vulnerable to climate change. With a low elevation and high population density, as well as poor infrastructure and an economic reliance on farming, it is naturally susceptible to extreme weather. The intensification of conditions due to climate change means more people are being driven from their homes and land by sea level rises, storms, cyclones, drought, erosion, landslides, flooding and salinisation of the land. It's estimated that by 2050, one in every seven people in Bangladesh will become a climate migrant. But Bangladesh is far from being alone. Across South Asia, it’s estimated that more than 40m people will be displaced; worldwide, the figure runs into the hundreds of millions. Climate migration is coming. The question is, what are we going to do about it? Guests: Akbar Hossain - reporter, BBC Bengali Service Qasa Alom - presenter, BBC Asian Network Dr Tasneem Siddiqui - founding chair of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit in Bangladesh Dr Kanta Kumari Rigaud - lead environmental specialist at the World Bank Presented by Graihagh Jackson and Neal Razzell Produced by Alex Lewis Researched by Zoe Gelber Edited by Emma Rippon

A Peruvian farmer is suing a German fossil fuel company, the city of Baltimore has filed a lawsuit against 26 oil and gas firms, and a Polish coal mining company was taken to court by its own shareholders. Activists, investors and everyday people are increasingly pursuing climate litigation as a means to exert pressure on companies and shift our societies onto a more sustainable trajectory. But success is far from assured. Our climate question this week is: Can companies be held accountable for climate change?Guests: Saúl Luciano Lliuya - Peruvian farmer Florence Goupil - freelance journalist Rupert Stuart Smith - DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford researching climate change litigation and attributing climate change damages to individual emitters Sophie Marjanac - climate accountability lead at Client EarthPresented by Graihagh Jackson and Neal Razzell Produced by Zak Brophy Researched by Dearbhail Starr and Olivia Noon Mixed by Tom Brignell Edited by Emma Rippon

As the world becomes more populous, experts say we’re likely to use 25 percent more concrete in the next decade. But concrete is also responsible for eight percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions. There are concerns that the industry isn’t taking its carbon footprint seriously enough. So our climate question this week is: Must our future be cast in concrete? Guests: Arpad Horvath, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkley Professor Karen Scrivener, head of Laboratory of Construction Materials at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland Anupama Kundoo, professor of architecture at the Potsdam School of Architecture, Berlin, and working architect Sophia Yan, China correspondent for The Telegraph Presented by Graihagh Jackson and Neal Razzell Produced by Alex Lewis Researched by Zoe Gelber Edited by Emma Rippon

The rise of renewables is good news for the climate, but for millions of families who rely on fossil fuels for a paycheque, it means big changes.People have been talking about a “just transition” for decades. The term was first used in the 1990s, when US unions were demanding help for those who'd lost their jobs because of tightening environmental laws. Now it means looking at how we decarbonise our economies around the world, without leaving certain people behind. Neal and Graihagh hear from Craig, Colorado, as it plans for the shut down of its coal mines. They also hear from the Middle East and North Africa, where countries have relied on oil and gas for their economies. The money from fossil fuels has kept an instable region together in the past, so what happens when that money runs out? Reporter: Sam Brasch, Colorado State Radio Experts: Laury Haytayan, Middle East and North Africa director at the Natural Resource Governance Institute; Professor Paul Stevens, Distinguished Fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources Programme at Chatham House. Producer: Jordan Dunbar Researchers: Olivia Noon and Dearbhail Starr Editor: Emma Rippon

Drastic change is needed to limit the increase in the global temperature caused by climate change. More than two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions come from how we live our lives. But the behaviours that drive these emissions tend to be deeply habitual and hard to shift - the way we heat our homes, what we eat and how we travel to work. And our behavioural good intentions all too often fail to translate into action. So our climate question this week is how we can be nudged, or even shoved, to change?Guests: Elisabeth Costa, senior director, Behavioural Insights Team Erik Thulin, behavioural science lead at the Centre for Behaviour and the Environment at Rare Professor Martine Visser, behavioural economist at the University of Cape Town Mo Allie, BBC reporter in Cape TownPresented by Graihagh Jackson and Neal Razzell Produced by Alex Lewis Researched by Zoe Gelber Edited by Emma RipponAnd if you’ve got a climate question, then email the team: theclimatequestion@bbc.com

It seems we all love trees. Politicians, celebrities and big businesses love trees too. They’re seen as a natural climate fix because they eat carbon dioxide, one of the main gases that cause global warming. The number of trees pledged in the coming years runs into the billions. Pakistan wants to plant more than three billion trees in the next couple of years. Ethiopia claims to have planted 350 million in one day! Neal Razzell and Graihagh Jackson try to see the wood from the trees amongst all these claims, and discover that a ‘forest’ planting campaign doesn't always end up creating the natural woodland we imagine it to be. And to add to the urgency of the climate crisis, there's a new problem - a warming world may mean plants can’t suck up our carbon dioxide as effectively. Have we planted too much faith in trees? Experts: Dr Kate Hardwick, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Prof Pedro Brancalion, professor of forest sciences at the University of São Paulo Dr Ben Ben Poulter, NASA Goddard Space Centre Rafael Bitante, SoS Mata Atlantica Project Producer: Jordan Dunbar (London), Jessica Cruz (Sao Paulo) Researcher: Soila Apparicio Editor: Penny Murphy

When a man sitting on nearly $9 trillion dollars of funds speaks, CEOs, investors and politicians listen. In late January, Larry Fink, boss of the world’s largest hedge fund, BlackRock, announced in his annual letter that "climate risk is investment risk. But we also believe the climate transition presents a historic investment opportunity.” He's not alone in championing big money's green awakening, but the titans of finance remain invested in the fossil fuel industry to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. So does the rhetoric marry with reality? Guests: Caroline Le Meaux - Head of ESG Research, Engagement, and Voting policy at Amundi Jeanne Martin - Senior Manager at Share Action Vishala Sri-Pathma - BBC business reporter

The big tech firms of the world have reported record profits during lockdown. These firms are some of the industrial titans of the digital age. Their ability to manipulate vast quantities of data is revolutionising, well, everything. From streaming games and movies, to automating mining operations, controlling medical devices and even simple emails, the internet has brought incredible advances right across the globe. But we now know that previous industrial revolutions placed a huge burden on the planet. Our climate question this week is: Will this one be any different? Facebook has pledged to use only renewable energy by the end of 2020, not 2030, as we stated in the programme.Guests: Dr Rabih Bashroush - IT infrastructure expert, The Uptime Institute Dr Stephanie Hare - Author and tech researcher Mats Lewan - Tech reporter, Stockholm Presented by Graihagh Jackson and Neal Razzell Produced by Jordan Dunbar Researched by Soila Apparicio Edited by Emma Rippon

Africa has an electricity crisis. Hundreds of millions of people lack cheap, steady supply, crippling lives in countless ways. Every other continent has electrified off the back of fossil fuels but Africa, on the face of it, has the opportunity to do it differently. Researchers found that some 2,500 power plants are planned across the continent. But the majority are expected to run on fossil fuels threatening to lock Africa into dirty energy for decades. In this edition of The Climate Question, we ask: What would it take to bring clean power to every African? For answers, we have one of Africa’s leading experts on power. Damilola Ogunbiyi ran the Lagos power authority before taking over efforts to electrify Nigeria’s rural communities. Today, she’s the CEO of Sustainable Energy for All and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All. We are also joined by Tony Tiyou, the Cameroonian CEO of the firm Renewables in Africa. And we hear from a community in Nigeria where people just want the lights on, now.