The oil lobbyist who tried to sink the first big climate deal

The Global Story

Content provided by BBC and BBC World Service. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by BBC and BBC World Service or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

15d ago 26:38

MP3•Episode home

The American lawyer, oil lobbyist and master strategist Don Pearlman is said to have chain-smoked his way through almost every UN climate gathering from the early 1990s until his death in 2005.

Some of those who saw Pearlman operate in Kyoto, where the first legally binding international agreement on climate change was agreed in 1997, say he created the playbook for stalling climate talks. The Kyoto protocol was never ratified by the United States, and Pearlman is now the subject of a major play, Kyoto, which has just transferred from London to the Lincoln Center in New York.

As the COP30 climate summit takes place in Brazil, we speak to BBC climate journalist Jordan Dunbar, who’s been trying to piece together the true story of the man once nicknamed ‘the high priest of the carbon club’.

Producers: Aron Keller and Cat Farnsworth

Eexecutive producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Don Pearlman at the Kyoto summit / BBC.

464 episodes

#News #BBC #BBC World Service #Daily News #US Election