Alden Meyer – Taking stock: Five years after the Paris Agreement

In the 13th episode of Planet A, we commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, as Dan Jørgensen talks with Alden Meyer about the history of the international climate negotiations. 

Meyer is one of the world’s most prominent advisers on climate policy and served as Director of Strategy and Policy at the Union of Concerned Scientistsfor four decades. Today he is senior associate for the climate think-tank E3G. 

During the conversation, Meyer takes us through from the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 to the conclusion of the Paris Agreement in 2015.

He explains how COP15, while often described as a failure, also helped lay the groundwork for the Paris Agreement by introducing voluntary climate goals and a mechanism for ramping up national ambitions.

Furthermore, Meyer discusses the numerous conflicts throughout the negotiation between the developed and the developing countries as well as between fossil fuel companies and NGOs.

Meyer argues that the world is “moving in the right direction, but not fast enough”. Yet, he remains an optimist due to the surge of climate activism from young people around the globe and the increasing climate action from sub-national actors such as cities and states.