All language subtitles for BBC.Climate.Change.The.Facts.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

We've had some hot days this summer

but nothing like what we're going
to get into, starting tomorrow.

Today, the mercury hit
a scorching 35 degrees Celsius.

Temperatures are set to rise even
further this week and could even

break the all-time record.

Right now, we are facing
our greatest threat

in thousands of years.

Climate change.

For a long time, climate change
was something that scientists

were predicting that would
happen in the future.

But that's no longer the case.

What we're doing right now is
we're so rapidly changing

the climate, for the first time
in the world's history,

people can see the impact
of climate change.

Greater storms, greater floods,
greater heat waves,

extreme sea level rises.

All of this is happening far faster
than many of us thought possible.

Scientists across the globe
are in no doubt that at the

current rate of warming,
we risk a devastating future.

It's difficult to see
how the population of the world

will actually feed itself.

It's happening in your world.

It's happening in my world.

Time is very short.

There's still time
but there isn't much time left.

The science is now clear
that urgent action is needed.

We're at a tipping point.

We can change history.

Right now!

What happens now,
and in these next few years,

will profoundly affect
the next few thousand years.

What can be done to avert disaster
and ensure the survival

of our civilisations...

..and the natural world
upon which we depend?

It's our future.

We can't just let it
slip away from us.

Standing here in the English
countryside, it may not seem obvious

but we are facing a man-made
disaster on a global scale.

In the 20 years since I first
started talking about the impact

of climate change on our world,
conditions have changed far faster

than I ever imagined.

It may sound frightening,
but the scientific evidence is

that if we have not taken
dramatic action within the

next decade, we could
face irreversible damage

to the natural world

and the collapse of our societies.

We're running out of time,
but there is still hope.

I believe that if we better
understand the threat we face,

the more likely it is that we can
avoid such a catastrophic future.

Our climate is changing
because of one simple fact.

Our world is getting hotter.

We have temperature records
going back over 100 years.

There are dips and troughs.

There are so many years that are not
as warm as other years.

But what we've seen is this steady
and unremitting temperature trend.

20 of the warmest years
on record have all occurred

in the last 22 years.

It's not just Met Office records
that are showing this trend.

Data from the US Climate Centre,
NOAA, the Japanese Met Office

and NASA all show the
same sharp rise in temperatures.

When scientists first became
concerned about these increasing

temperatures, nobody could be sure
exactly what was driving them.

Four decades of research later,
on land, at sea,

and in the far reaches
of our atmosphere,

the evidence is now unequivocal.

What's striking is that
warming trend cannot be explained

by natural factors...

but is caused by human activities.

In particular,
by use of fossil fuels.

The problem is that everything
we do, our entire economy,

from the moment you wake up in the
morning and turn on the light,

or look at your cellphone,
to the moment you go to bed

at night, and even then
because your cellphone

is still drawing power at night,
I mean, we're all using energy

all the time.

And in the industrialised world,
that energy is almost

entirely fossil fuels.

When you burn fossil fuels,
coal, gas and oil,

to power our energy generation,
to heat our homes,

to drive our factories,
to power our cars and our trains,

and travel around the world.

When we burn fossil fuels,
it produces carbon dioxide

as a waste product.

Carbon dioxide acts like a blanket.

It absorbs the heat radiation
from the Earth's surface

and that keeps the surface warmer
than it would be otherwise.

The problem is what we're doing now
is we're adding extra

carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases.

So we're increasing the
thickness of this blanket.

Before we started to burn coal,
the amount of carbon dioxide

in the atmosphere was about
280 parts per million.

It's now over 400 parts per million.

And the planet gets
warmer and warmer.

We have pumped so much
carbon dioxide into our atmosphere

that our world is now around
one degree Celsius hotter

than it was
in pre-industrial times.

This warming is enough to bring
about the raft of effects

we call climate change.

One degree Celsius global warming
may not sound like much,

but it's having a dramatic effect
on our weather.

You warm up the planet,
of course you're going to get

more intense and more frequent
heat waves.

You're going to dry out
the soils.

You're going to get worse drought.

We're seeing extreme heat
in southern Africa,

Japan, North America,
in the UK as well.

It is officially the hottest day
of the year so far.

Often, the question is, did climate
change cause a certain event?

You can never really
answer that question.

But what scientists do is
to look at whether climate change

made a certain event
more or less likely,

or more or less intense.

Last year, we had a heat wave
that was actually the joint warmest

on record, alongside 1976.

And we have been analysing
this here at the Met Office.

What that showed us was
that the chances of that heat wave

had increased by about 30 times.

So it's now about 30 times more
likely that we had that heat wave

than we would have had
without climate change.

Today, the mercury hit
a scorching 35 degrees Celsius.

So it doesn't mean to say
that every single weather event

is due to climate change.

But what climate change does mean
is that with the baseline climate

having changed, then
the frequency of the

extreme temperatures is increasing.

And that has a substantial effect.

In November last year, when
temperatures in Cairns, Australia,

hit 42 degrees,
even creatures specifically adapted

to heat were unable to survive.

They're just...

everywhere.

When we got here in the morning,
it was the first time

really we saw it.

There were just dead bats
as far as the eye could see.

There was a deafening sound
of babies crying.

You just don't know where to start.

So we just started
finding babies, basically.

There's a little baby
attached to its dead mum.

Like all species, flying foxes
have ways of dealing

with the conditions
of their environment.

But it seems their usual cooling
methods are no longer enough

for the kind of temperatures
Australia is now facing.

Last year, temperature records
were broken across the country.

Scientists have shown that it's
simply inconceivable that you would

see these temperatures without
the fact of climate change.

We saved about 350.

The rest are dead.

Over 11,000 died from that colony.

And if you have two more events
like we had,

the species is gone.

This is climate change in action.

We need to wake up.

I've seen for myself
that in addition to the many other

threats they face,
animals of all kinds are now

struggling to adapt to
rapidly changing conditions.

Think of the equator.

As climate change occurs,
that central part of the world

becomes increasingly uninhabitable.

If climate change is too fast,
we're pushing them

off the planet, in effect.

We're causing extinction
of species already.

And that's irreversible.

Scientists believe that 8%
of species are now at threat

of extinction solely
due to climate change.

This isn't just about
losing wonders of nature.

With the loss of even
the smallest organisms,

we destabilise and ultimately risk
collapsing the world's ecosystems.

The networks that support
the whole of life on Earth.

What's been happening in
recent years is really showing us

what one degree Celsius
really means.

Not just for wildlife,
but for people, for their safety,

for their livelihoods
and for their futures.

As temperatures rise,
the threats we face multiply.

Last year saw record-breaking
wildfires take hold

across the globe.

Firefighters are working
around the clock.

It has to be seen to be believed.

Australia is seeing some
of its worst fires in years.

We've seen wildfires
break out in Greece,

even in the Arctic.

Wildfire, sweeping across some
of the coldest countries on Earth.

We've seen a tripling
in the extent of wildfire

in the western US, California.

The fires that swept
through California last year

caused $24 billion worth of damage.

106 people lost their lives.

We're not just talking about
an inconvenience.

We're talking about
people's lives,

their livelihoods and
their communities being damaged.

The wildfires need
an ignition source.

What?

Maybe cigarette butts,
or lightning, and then you need

the weather conditions that are
conducive to that fire spreading.

GASPS

Do I go?

I don't want to get trapped.

Research has shown that the chances
of having these very hot,

dry conditions has increased
as a result of climate change.

Easy, easy. Oh, my God!

Easy, easy.

Dad, this isn't safe.

It was a dead end road,
so we knew it was our only option

to drive forward.

And all sides of the road
just completely

engulfed in flames.

The car is heating up.
It's going to explode!

All right.

He's going, "Dad, Dad,
we're going to die!"

And I said, "No, we're going
to be fine, you know."

Jesus, God help us.

I stayed calm.

I think being a father,
you're trying to keep

your son calm too at that point.

We're good, we're good, we're good.

We could hear trees
literally exploding.

Falling all around us.

Please, God, help us.

A large branch went
right over the top of the car.

The whole top of the roof was
burning and we didn't realise it.

There was a tree down.

We can't get out!

That was the moment
when I really thought

that we might die.

Oh, my gosh!
Stop! Stop!

Let's get out of here.

I decided to put the car in reverse.

I had to drive backwards through
everything we had already passed

through to the lakeshore.

This one little boat
was down there watching the fire.

And we were able to wave them in
to help us get out of there.

That, to me, was just a miracle.

But it's not just through
extreme heat events

that climate change
is having an effect.

It's changing our
weather systems in other ways.

This is a basic result of physics.

With a degree Celsius of warming,
there's more moisture evaporating

off the oceans.

When there's more
moisture in the air,

you're going to get more rainfall.

You're going to get super storms
and force flooding events.

We are seeing the impacts of climate
change now play out in real time.

They're no longer subtle.

You have had the worst rain
in China, in Japan.

You have had a deluge in Kerala.

The crisis deepens for
hundreds of thousands in Kerala.

Whilst they can't all be
attributed to climate change,

last year's extreme weather events
meant that millions of people

needed humanitarian aid.

Join the dots.
It's happening.

It's happening in your world,
it's happening in my world.

And let's be very clear about this -
it is going to get much worse.

Climate change goes
far beyond the weather.

Thousands of miles away
and out of sight of most of us,

another threat is building.

Earth's ice, frozen for millennia,
is melting.

Earth's temperature has risen
by what most people would think

is a small amount
over the past century.

One degree Centigrade.

That's too much for
the ice to withstand.

In the last year, we've had
a global assessment of ice losses

from Antarctica and from Greenland.

And they tell us that things
are worse than we'd expected.

The Greenland ice sheet is melting.

It's lost four trillion tonnes
of ice,

and it's losing five times as much
ice today as it was 25 years ago.

If you go to the southern
hemisphere, in the past,

most of the models predicted
that Antarctica would grow.

That's not the case.

Antarctica's losing three times
as much ice today

as it was 25 years ago.

In Antarctica, really small changes
in ocean temperature in particular

melt a lot of ice.

The ocean is only about
half a degree centigrade warmer

than it should be.

But that's melting colossal amounts
of ice from enormous glaciers.

The water that melts from the
ice sheets ends up in one place,

and that's the oceans.

And that's when it starts
to affect people around the rest

of the planet.

The sea level has been stable
for several thousand years.

But if the ice sheets lose icebergs
faster and faster to the ocean,

the sea level goes up.

We know that sea level has already
risen by about 20 centimetres

in the last 100 years.

Rising seas are displacing hundreds
of thousands of people from already

vulnerable coastal areas
in the South Pacific,

Indonesia, Bangladesh.

The impact on families

is going to be something

that I don't think

we could ever prepare for.

In the United States,
Louisiana's on the front line

of this climate crisis.

It's losing land at one
of the fastest rates on the planet,

at about the rate of a
football field every 45 minutes.

The Isle de Jean Charles was once
home to 400 people.

But subsidence caused
by oil and gas extraction,

and now rising seas,
means that in the last six decades

much of it has disappeared.

Before, this was all land.

But due to sea-level rise,
slowly but surely it's washing away.

What we're looking at here
is where I was born

and raised, in 1946.

It's sad.

Very, very sad to see what happened
to my mom and dad's home,

and where they raised us at.

I want to finish my life,
as well, over here.

For the people on
Isle de Jean Charles,

they're running out of options.

And now what we see is just
10% of what used to be there.

We have been working with the state
to move an entire community.

This is the first time the federal
government of the United States

has offered dollars
for the relocation of folks

due to climate change.

When it comes to relocation,
this is the only place

I've ever known as home.

I don't want to abandon it,

I don't want to forget it.

A lot of people say that this land
that we're living on won't be here

in 20 years from now.

That's kind of hard to think about,
where you grew up

isn't going to be here any more.

The residents of Isle de
Jean Charles have been labelled

as the first climate refugees
in the United States.

And that may be true.

But what we know for sure is
that they won't be the last.

Sea levels are not only
increased by melting ice.

The world's oceans are expanding
because they're getting warmer.

Over 90% of the increased heat
trapped in our atmosphere

has been stored in the oceans.

I've witnessed the devastating
effect this is having.

In the last three years,
repeated heat stress has caused

a third of the world's corals
to first bleach and then die.

Our generation is going to be
responsible for the loss

of one of the most majestic
ecosystems on the face of the Earth.

We're literally watching the death
of this natural wonder.

In many ways, what's happening now
across the world

doesn't come as a surprise.

Much of what we're now experiencing,
scientists warned about

over 30 years ago.

What we're seeing at the moment
is exactly what we predicted.

What I'd like to do today
is to start with Dr James Hansen.

In the summer of 1988,
I testified to Congress.

Number one, the Earth is warmer
in 1988 than at any time

in the history of
instrumental measurements.

I said I was 99% confident
that this was a real,

physical effect of the
increasing carbon dioxide.

The Earth is warming
by an amount which is too large

to be a chance fluctuation.

James Hansen was absolutely
a pioneer in trying to reach

the public and politicians.

He played a major role,
there's no doubt, in putting

climate change on the
international agenda.

Those who think we're powerless to
do anything about this

greenhouse effect are forgetting
about the White House effect.

The short-term response
was pretty good.

We are the Lord's creatures,
the trustees of this planet.

The politicians were
saying the right things,

that we should avoid dangerous
human-made changes to climate.

It's just that the policies needed
to achieve that were never adopted.

There are many reasons we haven't
acted on climate change.

Science is definitely
part of the story.

The science is complicated.

Economists had to look at, "OK,
what are the costs are going to be?"

And then technologists
had to work out,

"Well, what actually can we do
about it?"

And that's one of the reasons why
it took a long time for governments

really to put policies in place.

However, there was also resistance.

Let's be honest about this.

There are incumbent
industries that then,

they knew about climate change,
but they didn't really want

anything to happen.

Net income grew 17%...

Earnings rose to $10.9 billion...

The organisations that had the most
to lose by acting on climate change

were the fossil fuel companies.

The most profitable industry
possibly in the history of mankind,

making huge profits.

They wanted to continue that.

$11.7 billion profit.

Many of those industries,
basically the oil and gas industry,

the fossil fuel industry,
they undertook a quite concerted

campaign to confuse the science
and confuse the message.

This is industry funded
and industry driven.

Fossil fuel companies engaged
PR consultants who used exactly

the same tactics that have been used
by the tobacco companies,

and there's ample documentation.

The basic strategy is to
cast doubt on the science.

The science is so distorted
and mis-stated.

To promote the message
that we don't really know,

there isn't a consensus.

There are too many complexities
around climate science.

And it will be too
expensive to fix anyway.

We've had flatline temperatures
globally for the last eight years.

The cycle of denial has worked.

And even today,
the President of the United States

says that it's not true.

All of this with the global warming,
and a lot of it's a hoax,

it's a hoax. I mean, it's a
moneymaking industry. OK?

In the UK, we have the
Climate Change Act from 2008,

which was the first law anywhere
in the world to make a

legally binding target for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But what we've also seen here
is a number of people

in politics who've decided
really to campaign against action

on climate change.

There's plenty of evidence
that warming will bring benefits

as well as maybe disadvantages.

The arguments have been, well,
climate change is happening

but it may not be that serious.

There are huge benefits
from a warming planet.

In the IPCC's own report,
there's fewer deaths

from cold-related diseases.

They say we should just adapt
to it rather than try to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions.

And of course that's
very attractive to politicians.

Because to decide not to do
something is much more comfortable.

I think that many of us were
willing to hear that message

because we too depend upon
fossil fuels for our lifestyle.

So we're all implicated
in this economic system,

but it's not like we're
all equally responsible, right?

There's no doubt that that seeding
of doubt has slowed the transition

to a clean-energy economy.

We haven't entirely wasted the 30
years but it would have been so easy

to solve the problem
if we had started gradually to make

fossil fuels more expensive
and develop the technologies

to replace them.

But we didn't do that.

And now there are consequences.

Greenhouse gas emissions
have continued to rise

and the problem is
getting harder to solve.

The world's great forests play
a vital role in determining

the balance of carbon dioxide
in our atmosphere.

Trees and plants absorb
carbon dioxide, using it to build

their leaves, stems and roots.

In this process of photosynthesis,
they have sucked up and stored

nearly a third of our emissions.

The main driver of climate change
is greenhouse gas emissions.

Forests are one of our ways out.

They are like the lungs
of the planet.

They are big climate regulators
at a global scale.

July 23rd, 1972.

My work has always
been about monitoring

the land surface and forest.

Thrusting outward into space,
we gain new perspective

on ourselves.

Since 1972 till now,
Landsat has been tracking

and taking pictures
of the Earth's surface.

Circling the Earth,
it offers an ideal means

to monitor change.

In 2008, the US government
says it's open free of charge

and accessible over the internet.

Millions of images, automatically.

It's just this huge leap
in capability.

It was only then
where we saw the whole planet.

And when you see the whole,
it was a bit of a revelation.

And, yeah, the alarm bells go off.

These warm orangey tones,
that's forest disturbance,

that means forest was removed.

We didn't know that was going on.

Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia.

We can go anywhere and see
actual forest be cleared.

It usually starts with logging.

Rainforests are cleared and burned.

They then replace it with soybeans,
rubber, pasture for cattle.

But one of the big drivers
is palm oil.

Palm oil is like a magical fruit.

We all have palm oil
in our houses right now.

It's found in almost
every good you can think about.

It's in soaps, it's in shampoo.

It's in chocolate,
it's in bread.

It's even in crisps.

What we're doing,
accidentally and inadvertently,

is actually causing deforestation
in other countries because of our

demand for this product.

That means the
natural system is not working.

Habitats are disappearing.

But also when these
high carbon stock forests,

that are centuries old,
are cleared and burned,

CO2 is added to the atmosphere.

Those emissions go up
and warm the planet.

When you look at our maps,
our results are showing

that it's accelerating.

It almost looks like a contagion.

You know, it looks like
a disease across the planet.

I mean, the ever-increasing
pattern.

If we continue this level
of deforestation, we'll take it all.

And our ability to mitigate
climate change and turn the story

around becomes really
vanishingly small.

Trees are now being cut down
and burnt at such a rate,

that nearly a third of our
carbon dioxide emissions

are caused by deforestation.

It sucks.

I'm a pretty light-hearted,
optimistic guy.

But just looking at this data,
you just look at the stories,

I'd like to see some evidence

of a really strong, strong kind of

unified political response
that was more than an aspiration

on a kind of piece of paper, right?

That would be cool.

Looking ahead to the future,
we know that if we continue

releasing carbon dioxide
into our atmosphere,

temperatures will keep rising
and the consequences

will get progressively worse.

But do we know how much worse?

There are thousands
of scientists around the world,

in almost every single country,
working to understand

what will happen in the future
if we don't act, we don't do more.

So we use really powerful climate
models, which are numerical

representations of the whole
of the Earth system.

The oceans, the land,
the atmosphere and the ice

on the planet.

And then we drive it
with increased carbon dioxide,

based on predictions of the future
and then we see what the model does.

They predict that if
we carry on as we are now,

where CO2 continues to increase,
we would hit 1.5 degrees

global warming by between
2040 and 2050.

We're on course to go through 1.5
degrees in just a few decades' time,

and the models differ slightly
as to exactly when.

And not long after that,
we're on a trajectory to go

through two degrees.

Whilst we don't know exactly
what a two degree warmer world

will look like, there's growing
evidence about the consequences

of crossing this threshold.

We know that with increased storms,
increased floods, droughts

and heat waves, production of food
will be more problematic.

It really becomes difficult to see
at such levels of warming

how we're going to maintain
our agriculture,

such that the population of the
world can actually feed itself.

Ensuring people have access
to clean, safe drinking water

will become much more difficult.

Developing countries
are at the front line

of this battle.

Those parts of the globe
which will suffer the most

and the soonest are not those parts
of the globe which have actually

loaded all those carbon dioxides
into the atmosphere

in the first instance.

But you have to understand,
this is also a crisis for the world.

The fact is that if the poor
are suffering today,

then the rich will
also suffer tomorrow.

As we look further into the future,
predicting how our climate system

might behave becomes more complex.

There's uncertainty
in climate projection, not least

because we don't know what
our generation when we're older

is going to be doing
and what the future generations

are going to be doing.

But based on our current trajectory,
the various models predict

that by the end of the century,
our planet will be somewhere

between three and six
degrees hotter.

Even if we are looking
at the bottom end of predictions,

that's still really bad.

Over 600 million people
live in coastal areas

that are less than
ten metres above sea level.

Some models predict if we don't do
anything to curb climate change,

then we could be looking at
80 centimetres to a metre

of sea level rise
by the end of the century.

So sea level is dangerous for us
in the UK, as indeed elsewhere.

The main impacts of what might seem
a gradual rise of sea level

is the risk from storms,
surges of sea

that we've never seen before.

If we lose all our coastal cities,
we've got a different planet

and we've got a economic situation
which is out of control.

While there's a lot we understand
about what the future might hold,

the big fear is that there
may be other, more extreme dangers

lurking beyond those
we already know about.

Scientists call these
tipping points.

A tipping point is where
in a part of the climate system,

just a little bit of extra warming
could nudge it into

a different state,
an irreversible change.

At the moment, it is our ongoing
emissions that are driving

global temperatures up.

But if we cross tipping points, that
could spiral beyond our control.

If we imagine a map of the world,
it turns out that there are climate

tipping points dotted all around it.

Greenland and West Antarctica
could be tipped

into irreversible meltdown.

There are major ecosystems
that we could tip

into an alternative state.

For example, triggering
a climate-induced dieback

of the rainforest,
turning it into a savannah.

Once you've crossed
a tipping point, that's it.

You've triggered
a catastrophic change.

It's going to carry on
getting even hotter,

because you've triggered something
that you can't undo.

One of the potential tipping points
scientists have identified

involves a greenhouse gas
locked underground.

We know that there's large amounts
of methane stored in the permafrost

in the Arctic, and we're worried
that as that permafrost starts

to actually unfreeze,
the methane trapped underneath

will start to bubble up.

Few bubbles down in there.

When we look down into the ice,
we see white pockets of gas.

We can see that there are bubbles
in the surface layer

and then there's a whole column
of bubbles that stacks up.

When this ice sheet melts,
the gases are released

into the atmosphere and you can
actually hear the gases coming out.

GAS HISSES

Let's have a look.

These flares that we're doing
demonstrate that the bubbles

contain methane.

It's a very potent
greenhouse gas.

Methane is 21 times more powerful
as a greenhouse gas than CO2.

So you can imagine a large amount
of gas burping out of the permafrost

actually causing the acceleration
in the global warming

that we see already happening.

You look out across the millions
of lakes in the Arctic,

you start to wonder
just how much methane

all of these lakes could release.

The future looks alarming indeed,
but it's not without hope.

There is still time,
if we act now with determination

and urgency.

What do governments, industries,
nations and we, as individuals,

need to do to change our course?

At the 2015 United Nations
climate summit in Paris,

for the first time ever,
nearly every country in the world

came to an agreement.

It set an objective to hold
temperatures below two degrees

and try to limit warming to 1.5.

If we want to try and keep
the global climate to 1.5 degrees,

we have to half our carbon emissions
by 2030 and then hit

zero carbon emissions globally
by 2050.

This poses a huge challenge,
as emissions must be cut from almost

every part of the economy.

But 25% come from how
we produce electricity and heat,

and alternatives are
already within our grasp.

It's actually not that complicated.

We need to shift our energy system
away from fossil fuels that produce

greenhouse gases and towards
renewable energies that don't.

Every country has got
a different resource.

In Norway, you've got
an awful lot of hydro power.

If you're in India or Morocco,
there's lots and lots of sun.

The problem was that renewables
were much more expensive

than fossil fuels.

But what's happened recently
is rapid falls in the price

of renewable energy.

Solar power has led
the way with this.

Germany went first with of many
of the key technologies in solar,

and China really
picked up the baton.

There's tremendous technological
innovation taking place

around the world.

Solar power is now the cheapest form
of newly installed electricity

in more than 60 countries.

We're seeing a huge growth
in renewable energy.

Despite entrenched
fossil fuel interests,

they've been unable
to stop that transition.

And we've got to do even more.

In the UK, for a long time,
we've been considering

future energy sources.

It used to be ten,
20 years ago that nuclear power

offered a relatively
cheap way through.

And one really good advantage
of nuclear is that

it doesn't produce emissions.

But what's become clearer recently
is that some technologies

are performing better than others.

And increasingly,
that's been about wind.

Here in the UK, we are building
some of the biggest offshore

wind turbines in the world.

The bigger the turbine,
the more wind can be captured.

Just one revolution of these blades
can power a house for a day.

With the increased capacity,
wind resource is about to become

as cheap and much cheaper
in the future, than fossil fuels.

So far, around 30% of
the UK's electricity

comes from renewable sources.

If that is to continue to grow,
we'll need to develop

parallel systems to keep our energy
reliable and store what we produce.

The bit that comes next,
that means that we have to

decarbonise industry
and we've got to decarbonise

the transport sector.

And that means using things
like electric vehicles,

battery-powered vehicles,

potentially even
hydrogen-powered vehicles.

We know what we have to do.

We really have to get on and do it.

And this is the political decision
and the brave decision

that needs be taken.

Do we incur a small cost now,
not insignificant cost,

let's be clear on it,
or do we wait and see

the need to adapt?

And the economics is
really clear on this,

that the costs of action are dwarfed
by the costs of inaction.

If we take this path now, we
could potentially buy ourselves time

to crack some of the
most challenging sources

of emissions, like aviation.

One of the major barriers
to obtaining electric flight

is the power that we can get
from batteries today.

But we are seeing strides being made
and seeing a reduction in the weight

of these batteries.

Recently, the world's first
fully electric plane

made it across the Channel.

This was a single-passenger
60 kilowatt power jet.

Now we're trying to retrofit a
20 tonne aircraft and get it flying.

We'll be replacing one of the
engines with an electric motor

driving the fan.

We're going to take these hybrid
electric systems and test them

in the air, test them in flight
at different altitudes

and different temperatures.

And this is going to give us the key
to understand how we might integrate

these systems for
future aircraft designs.

To limit warming to 1.5 degrees,
as well as reducing the amount

of carbon dioxide we release
into the atmosphere,

we need to find ways
to reduce the vast amount

that's already there.

There's a great deal of interest
in the kind of technologies

that we might have that could
actually remove carbon dioxide

from the atmosphere.

Now, the first thing to say is

we already have these technologies
and they're called trees.

If we reforest and rewild vast areas
of the world, then we can

lock up huge amounts of carbon
that is currently in the atmosphere.

In the future, there are other
technologies that might work.

Like direct air capture.

This is one of the world's
first carbon collectors.

Air is sucked into the collector.

Inside there is a filter unit
that absorbs CO2.

The CO2 sticks to the filter.

And then it's dissolved in water.

And under high pressure,
we pump it down to 1,800 metres.

It's the same as the depth
of the Grand Canyon.

And there it enters the bedrock.

This is a core taken from deep
within the ground at the site

where we injected our CO2.

It's basalt.

The water just flows
through these pores and reacts

with the rock.

So the white that we see here
is the CO2 turned into stone.

So it's not affecting
our atmosphere.

Technologies like this may be able
to help us in the future,

but to meet emission targets,
action is needed now.

Can what we do as individuals
make a difference?

So the average UK person has got
a carbon footprint of roughly

13 tonnes of carbon dioxide
equivalent, per person, per year.

And that's everything
that they buy and do,

traced right back
down the supply chain.

And we can pick a few things
to start with that will make

a really significant difference.

They should be making our homes
as energy efficient as possible.

That can be as simple
as getting your house insulated

so you waste less energy, which by
the way, will save you money.

Everything that we buy,
even if we can't see it,

has a carbon footprint.

From smartphones,
to clothes, to furniture.

We've all become completely used
to buying things

produced using fossil fuels.

A lot of the time
we really don't know that.

Take a washing machine,
mainly made out of metal

and that starts off with a mine.

Ore is going to be taken
to the blast furnace

to extract the metal.

An enormous amounts of fossil fuel
is going to be used.

And then parts are
turned into components,

more emissions again.

Lastly, it's shipped
all over the world to arrive

at your local shop.

So we need to think about
buying less physical products.

When we do so, buy higher quality
and then make it last.

We've been such a wasteful world,
especially in the more developed

parts of the world.

You actually can be
far less wasteful

and not affect the quality
of your life at all.

Food is about a quarter
of our carbon footprint in the UK.

If we take three steps,
then we can cut that in half.

First step, just to eat
everything that we buy.

In the UK, we waste an
enormous proportion of our food.

And second, avoid air freighted food
which is about 100 times

as impactful as putting it on
a boat, and suddenly becomes

a carbon disaster.

Lastly, the most important thing
to do is to reduce our meat

and dairy consumption,
especially beef and lamb.

The problem is not traditional
farming techniques.

The problem is with
intensive farming.

It takes a lot of resources to rear
an animal, and cows and sheep

are especially high impact
because they ruminate,

which means they burp up methane.

And the science on this
is absolutely clear cut.

Our studies have shown
that if we take these three steps,

we could knock perhaps even
two tonnes off the average

UK person's carbon footprint.

These things really do matter.

They only get you part of the way.

But again, if we don't have them,
we won't make the final target.

What happens next is up to us all.

I truly believe that together we can
bring about the

transformative change
that is needed.

Where your influence really kicks
in is the way that you push

for the cultural change
that we need to see

and the political change
that we need to see.

People being able to make
their voice heard really matters.

You should not underestimate
your own power or underestimate

your own significance
to change people's minds

and change people's behaviour.

When I was younger, I had lots of
plans of becoming different things,

everything from an actor
to a scientist.

But then my teachers in school
told me about climate change.

That was sort of
an eye opener to me.

The more I read about it,
the more I understood how dangerous

it was for everyone.

I stopped going to school.

I stopped talking
because I was just so sad.

And then...

that made me very concerned.

One day, I decided
that this was enough.

I wasn't going
to accept this any more.

My future and everyone else's future
is at risk

and nothing is being done.

No-one is doing anything.

So I have to do something.

So I sat myself down on the ground
outside the Swedish parliament

and I decided that I wasn't
going to go to school.

The first day I sat all alone.

Then the second day,
people started joining me.

I wouldn't have imagined
in my wildest dreams

that this would happen.

It happened so fast.

I know hundreds and thousands
of pupils follow you

by not going to school.

You are on the front pages
of the most influential

newspapers and magazines.

I saw that nothing was happening
and no-one was doing anything.

So then I have to do something.

And I want to be able to,
when I grow, to look back and say

that I did what I could back then.

What do we want?

Climate justice!
When do we want it? Now!

It is amazing that tens of thousands
of children all around the world

have done the same thing as I did...

..saying that why should we go
to school, if there's no future?

And why should we learn facts

when the most important facts
don't matter?

I've learned that you are never
too small to make a difference.

And if a few children can get
headlines all over the world,

just by not going to school,
then imagine what we could all

do together if we really wanted to.

Change is coming,
whether you like it or not.

Today was a day led by the children
in dozens of protests

across the country.

Save our planet!

We still have time to turn
everything around,

to pull the emergency brake
and to take action.

But that short period of time
isn't going to last for long.

There's a message for all of us
in the voices of these young people.

It is after all their generation who
will inherit this dangerous legacy.

We now stand at a unique point
in our planet's history,

one where we must all share
responsibility both for our

present wellbeing and for the future
of life on Earth.

Every one of us has the power to
make changes and make them now.

Our wonderful natural world
and the lives of our children

and grandchildren,
and all those who follow them,

depend upon us doing so.