After Paris: Global approaches to climate change [UPDATED]

America Abroad
A woman is helped to move through a water-logged road after rains in Mumbai.

It’s been almost two years since 195 countries signed a historic climate change agreement in Paris. And last spring, President Trump announced his intention to pull the US out of the agreement. Meanwhile, all the other signatories have reaffirmed their commitment to clean energy policy. 

In this hour, we’ll circle the globe to see how various countries are tackling the issue of climate change since the historic Paris climate agreement. We’ll check in on two of the world’s top carbon producers — China and India. Both countries are committed to decreasing their carbon footprints, but with different approaches. China is emphasizing innovation, while India is focused on subsidizing the green energy market.

And we’ll visit two places where global warming is most dramatic, the Arctic and North Africa. We learn about the limits the Canadian government has faced in enacting national laws in the the face of strong opposition from industry and how the Moroccan monarchy is betting big on emerging green technology as a means to bolster its energy security.

Finally, we’ll discuss whether countries can reduce their emissions without damaging their economies and what the US pullout means for the world.

Featured interviews

  • Barbara Finamore is a senior attorney and Asia director at the NRDC.
  • Brian Deese is a former senior advisor to President Obama and was a top negotiator of the Paris agreement. 
  • Michael Breen is the CEO of the Truman National Security Project. 
  • Bob Inglis is a clean energy advocate and former Republican congressman from South Carolina.

Featured stories

  • Chris Bentley reports from Morocco on how this country drenched in sunlight is taking advantage of solar energy opportunities. (Rebroadcast from The World and the GroundTruth Project)
  • Jocelyn Ford reports from China on the hundreds of thousands of farmers who are now climate change refugees.
  • Antoine Guinard reports from India on efforts to expand renewable energy as the country develops economically.
  • Carrie Swiggum reports from the Canadian arctic, where people worry that their way of life is literally melting way. 
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