Climate Challenge (2007)
Even President Bush has acknowledged the existence of global warming. The scientists on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say that only massive cuts in the release of greenhouse gases can save our planet from becoming a Venusian hothouse.
But how can that be achieved when most rich countries fail to meet even the modest Kyoto targets? And at a time when the world's most populous countries are expanding their energy requirements at an unprecedented rate. What can be done to head off a catastrophe?
In this six-part series One Planet Pictures' film-makers examine some of the most promising approaches to turning down the global thermostat. Climate Challenge goes local and global to search for solutions that won't put a break on economic growth.
The Climate Challenge series was supported by the United Nations Environment Programme and by Ashden and CTA.
(The Ashden Awards promote local sustainable energy solutions in the UK and the developing world The CTA (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU) works to improve the flow of information among stakeholders in agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.)
In the first nine months of 2006, the carbon market grew to nearly US$22 billion, more than doubling in value over the almost US$11 billion recorded in 2005. Can this booming market mitigate the impact of the greenhouse effect?...
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Seeing the Forests for the Trees
Under the Kyoto Protocol, rich polluting nations can ‘offset’ their carbon profligacy by – among other measures – paying poor countries to plant trees...
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Capturing Carbon
With Capturing Carbon, the Climate Challenge series goes global again. Can technology on the grand scale solve the problem of the build-up of greenhouse gases?...
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The Home Front
In our final three programmes we go local to find that, while politicians wrangle over treaties, ordinary people are quietly coming up with practical solutions to climate change, often saving money as well as cutting emissions.
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Doing the Business
In this programme, we discover how sustainable energy needn’t hamper economic development – by looking at examples of cleaner energy solutions that are doing the business for planet and pocket.
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Bright Ideas
In our final programme, we take a look at bright ideas that could cut fossil fuel use in the future.
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