The Climate Question

The Climate Question panel answer your queries. Do beavers protect the planet? Should we put solar panels in deserts? And why does the world need to upgrade its electricity grids?
Host Graihagh Jackson puts your head-scratchers to Justin Rowlatt, BBC climate editor; Akshat Rathi, senior climate reporter for Bloomberg News and host of Bloomberg's Zero podcast; and Caroline Steel, presenter of BBC CrowdScience.
Got a question for the next listeners' show? You can email us at [email protected] or leave a WhatsApp message at + 44 8000 321 721
Production team: Diane Richardson and Grace Braddock
Sound Mix: Tom Brignell and Johnny Hall
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Simon Watts
Picture Credit: A beaver. Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

War leaves a visible trail of destruction: lives and families devastated, homes and communities reduced to rubble.
But there is also a climate cost of armed conflict, and it’s an issue that Climate Question listeners have been asking about. So in this show, Host Graihagh Jackson chats to two leading experts about the carbon footprint of battle itself - the jets, the bombs, the supply lines - and the impact of maintaining armies and bases during peacetime. They discuss Gaza and Ukraine, as well as the current US-Israel war with Iran.
Graihagh also finds out if there any ways for the military to reduce their emissions and whether they see climate change as a strategic threat.
GUESTS:
Neta Crawford, Professor of International Relations, University of St Andrews.
Dr. Benjamin Neimark, Associate Professor at Queen Mary, University of London
Got a question or comment? email us at [email protected]
Producers: Diane Richardson, Grace Braddock
Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell and Philip Bull
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Simon Watts

Methane is much more powerful than carbon dioxide and emissions are still rising. So what can we do to tackle the human-made sources of this greenhouse gas? And could this buy us time to get to grips with climate change?
It's a topic which many Climate Question listeners have been contacting us about. So in this episode Hosts Graihagh Jackson and Jordan Dunbar put some of your questions and comments to Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Sciences at University College London.
What makes methane so powerful? Is meat production to blame? And what about leaks and gas-flaring in the fossil fuel industry?
Got a question or comment, email us at [email protected]
Production team: Simon Watts, Diane Richardson, Grace Braddock
Sound Engineers: Tom Brignell and James Piper
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Simon Watts

China is installing solar panels and wind turbines so fast that its greenhouse gases emissions may now have peaked. If this trend is confirmed, it would be a major milestone in the fight against climate change because China is the world's largest polluter.
The BBC’s Beijing Correspondent Laura Bicker has travelled across China to see the country’s clean energy revolution first hand.
She’s visited solar farms in the deserts of Inner Mongolia and in the tea plantations of Yunnan. Laura even discovered a huge lake with panels floating on the surface!
But she also saw how China’s addiction to coal is continuing – with new power plants still being built and many poorer Chinese needing to burn coal to get through the winter.
In this edition of The Climate Question, Laura chats about her reporting with hosts Graihagh Jackson and Jordan Dunbar. They discuss whether the world’s biggest polluter is moving fast enough to meet its green energy targets, and what that means for China and the rest of the world.
Got a question you’d like answered? Email: [email protected]
Presenters: Graihagh Jackson and Jordan Dunbar
Guest: Laura Bicker, BBC China Correspondent
Producer in China: Joyce Liu
Production Team in London: Simon Watts and Grace Braddock
Sound Mix: Philip Bull and Tom Brignell
Editor: Simon Watts
Image: BBC - Solar panels in Yunnan, China

First broadcast in 2024. Graihagh Jackson finds out about the little know pollutant making us sick and driving the climate crisis.
It commonly comes from burning coal, diesel or wood and has a habit of getting stuck in people’s lungs as well as causing glaciers to melt.
In Nepal, home to some of the world’s most beautiful glaciers, we meet journalist Tulsi Rauniyar, who tells us all about the impact black carbon is having on women and children. She meets Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, a glacier expert who maps the ice losses in the Himalayas.
Zerin Osho from the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development helps us understand why black carbon is so important - but often forgotten - in the fight against climate change, and how we can change that.
NOTE: The figure given in this programme for the exact amount of global warming linked to black carbon is incorrect. The correct figure will be included in this programme description once re-checked.
Got a question you’d like answered? Email: [email protected]
Presenter: Graihagh Jackson
Producer: Ben Cooper
Researcher: Octavia Woodward
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Simon Watts
Sound Designer: Tom Brignell
PHOTO CREDIT: SAIF DAHLAH/AFP via Getty Images