COP28 Green Pulse podcasts from Dubai: Voices from the climate crisis frontline

A United Nations doctor who is trying to save millions of lives from the impacts of climate change; the scientist whose global team tracks what is happening to all the CO2 we emit; and the politician from a small Pacific island nation who is tireless in pushing big polluters to take responsibility for the destructive impacts caused their greenhouse gas emissions.

The Straits Times met these three global changemakers at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai at the end of 2023. ST’s climate editor David Fogarty spoke with each of them to hear how they are trying to make the world a better place.

The WHO doctor who highlights the climate link to a global health crisis

Dr Maria Neira, the World Health Organisation’s top public health and environment official, speaks passionately about the urgent need to see that climate change really is a global health crisis. From heat waves and floods triggering illness and death to air pollution from burning fossil fuels killing millions of people a year, these climate impacts scar whole communities. Dr Neira tells Green Pulse about the importance of making this critical human connection and why Health Day at COP28 — the first ever for UN climate COP — is so important.

The carbon sleuths: Scientists who track the world’s rapidly diminishing carbon budget

What happens to all the CO2 pumped into the air? Where is it all coming from and how much is being added each year? To find out, we speak to leading climate scientist Professor Pierre Friedlingstein from Exeter University in Britain. He coordinates the annual Global Carbon Budget study, which is produced by the Global Carbon Project, a scientific consortium involving more than 100 scientists. The study is an annual snapshot of global CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and land use change. And it is a vital guide on the state of the planet’s global carbon cycle. He talks about the findings of this year’s study, which predicts that fossil fuel carbon emissions will reach a new record in 2023.

Vanuatu climate minister on the ‘loss and damage’ fund

The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu is a remote chain of about 80 islands that has suffered devastating cyclones, rising sea levels, coral bleaching from warming oceans and other impacts, costing its people and the economy dearly. Each major disaster drains the budget and sets the country back, Mr Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, tells Green Pulse. COP28 finally agreed to create a fund that would channel money from richer nations to pay for irreparable loss and damage from climate impacts. But this is just the start. Mr Regenvanu is a strong advocate for big polluting nations to face up to their responsibilities for the human rights impacts caused by their emissions. Only strong climate action can save his nation and many island countries around the world, he says.

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