In part two of Climate Fight: the world’s biggest negotiation, we’re talking to experts about the grand goal of the negotiations: reaching net zero emissions by 2050. We explore what net zero means, and the technologies that will be needed to get the world there.

Featuring Mercedes Maroto-Valer, assistant deputy principal for research & innovation and director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions at Heriot-Watt University, James Dyke, senior lecturer in global systems at the University of Exeter and Myles Allen, professor of geosystem science and director of Oxford Net Zero at the University of Oxford. Our producer Tiffany Cassidy also visits the Boundary Dam coal-fired power plant in Saskatchewan, Canada, to see carbon capture and storage technology in action.

The Climate Fight podcast series is produced by Tiffany Cassidy. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens and our series theme tune is by Neeta Sarl. The series editor is Gemma Ware. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. A transcript of this episode is available here.

Climate fight: the world’s biggest negotiation is a podcast series supported by UK Research and Innovation, the UK’s largest public funder of research and innovation.

Further reading

• A global carbon removal industry is coming – experts explain the problems it must overcome, by Johanna Forster and Naomi Vaughan, University of East Anglia
• Climate crisis: what can trees really do for us?, by Rob MacKenzie University of Birmingham and Rose Pritchard, University of Manchester
• Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap , by James Dyke, University of Exeter; Robert Watson, University of East Anglia and Wolfgang Knorr, Lund University
• Net zero: despite the greenwash, it’s vital for tackling climate change, by Richard Black, Imperial College London; Steve Smith and Thomas Hale, University of Oxford