The acclaimed US sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson is also a star in the world of climate activism because his work often features climate change - on Earth and beyond. Robinson has been a guest speaker at the COP climate summit, and novels such as The Ministry For The Future and The Mars Trilogy are admired by everyone from Barack Obama to former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres. Robinson's books are not just imaginative but scientifically accurate, and some of their ideas have even inspired new thinking about climate-proofing technology. Kim Stanley Robinson has been talking to the Climate Question team.

Presenters: Jordan Dunbar and Graihagh Jackson

Got a question for The Climate Question? Email us: [email protected]

Some of the world's biggest carbon emitters - including the EU, India and Indonesia - have just had elections. Will the results change their climate policies?

Graihagh Jackson and Jordan Dunbar are joined by Anna Holligan, BBC correspondent in the Netherlands; Carl Nasman, BBC climate journalist based in Washington; and BBC climate reporter Esme Stallard.

Producers: Ben Cooper and Graihagh Jackson

With more and more people moving to cities, informal settlements are expected to grow. When floods hit these unplanned places, it can be disastrous, as we often don’t know much about them. Crucial questions often remain difficult to answer, like how many people live there, what are the buildings made of, and could they withstand a flood?

Featuring:

This little-known pollutant is 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.

The Paris Olympics are less than a month away. The last games in Tokyo were one of the hottest on record, with more than a hundred athletes suffering heat-related illnesses. And France, the host of this year’s Olympics, is no stranger to heatwaves – the country has seen 23 since 2010.

So how are top athletes training their bodies to not only perform at their best in high temperatures, but also to protect their health? Presenter Qasa Alom heads inside a sweltering, state of the art heat chamber at Leeds Beckett University to find out how one of the fastest marathon runners in Britain, Phil Sesemann, is maximising his chances of success in his Olympic debut.

Other athletes are more used to these conditions. We join India’s top triathlete, Pragnya Mohan, for a training run and hear what it’s like to compete when the thermometer climbs above 45 degrees Celsius.

More and more athletes are adopting heat training strategies in a warming world - but do they affect men and women the same? Dr Jessica Mee, Research Fellow at the University of Worcester tells us about her pioneering research into the impacts of heat on women’s bodies.

Featuring:

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Presenter: Qasa Alom

As a new play depicts the landmark global climate change agreement, the Kyoto protocol, Jordan Dunbar has a front row seat. He heads to the historic English town of Stratford-Upon-Avon to watch the opening night of the play, Kyoto, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. He hears why the writers, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson decided to dramatize the seemingly slow and tedious action of a global climate change conference. And the duo explain their goal to highlight Kyoto as a ‘parable of agreement’ in a world full of disagreement.

The programme also hears from two veterans of many real world climate change negotiations, including the Kyoto Protocol, the first global agreement to set legally binding targets. Christiana Figueres was responsible for leading climate negotiations as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Farhana Yamin provided legal and strategy advice to the leaders of AOSIS, the Alliance of Small Island States at Kyoto and nearly every UN climate summit since. Christiana is now the host of the 'Outrage And Optimism' podcast.

Got a question, comment or experience you’d like to share? Email: [email protected]

Presenter: Jordan Dunbar

Someone dies every other day protecting the environment, according to data gathered by the campaign group, Global Witness. Even higher numbers of people are attacked or threatened.

To understand why this is happening, the BBC’s East and Central Europe Correspondent, Nick Thorpe travels to the foothills of the Carpathians in Romania, to show us how important the forests there are in fighting climate change, why they’re subject to high levels of illegal logging and consequently, clashes with environmentalists. One activist, Gabriel Păun of Agent Green, describes the numerous and brutal attacks he’s experiences whilst out documenting illegal logging. We also hear from a mother, whose son was murdered when he confronted a ‘wood thief’ in 2019. Laura Furones from Global Witness tells host Graihagh Jackson why this is happening around the world and what we can do about it.

Got a question, comment or experience you’d like to share? Email: [email protected]

Produced and presented by Graihagh Jackson. Additional production by Osman Iqbal.

There’s been a lot happening in our warming world and so The Climate Question is taking a break from its usual analysis to catch you up with the latest news. From worsening turbulence and plummeting planes to new rocket launches with satellites on board that hope to unlock one of the Earth’s big mysteries: clouds... and how they might impact, and be impacted, by global heating.

Plus, a look at the latest trends in clean, green energy technology. Are we investing enough in renewables to put the brakes on climate change?

Hosts Graihagh Jackson and Jordan Dunbar are joined by Tim Gould from the International Energy Agency to find out about their new World Energy Investment Report and by BBC Climate Journalist Esme Stallard to discuss worsening air turbulence and what we can do about it.

Do you have any questions or comments? Email: [email protected]

Show Notes: Check out Jordan’s YouTube videos, covering the climate basics here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQYTEotCJw8&t=5s

Production Team: Octavia Woodward, Ben Cooper, Brenda Brown

Billions of dollars have been pumped into the promise of a climate-friendly way of producing meat, but is growing a steak in a lab any better for the planet than rearing a cow on a farm?

Guests:

Producer: Simon Tulett

Graihagh Jackson is joined by her regular panel to answer climate-related questions from listeners. BBC climate editor Justin Rowlatt, Prof Tamsin Edwards of King's College London, and Dr Akshat Rathi, senior climate reporter for Bloomberg News, discuss telling children about climate change, solar panels, nuclear fusion and more.

Plus, Graihagh finds out if playing music really helps plants to grow.

If you have got a climate question, email us at [email protected]

Production team: Osman Iqbal, Octavia Woodward, Neil Churchill, Tom Brignell