Climate change is upon us. In 2018 the IPCC published a report with the most significant warning about the impact of climate change in 20 years. Unless the world keeps warming to below 1.5% degrees Celsius the impact on the climate will be severe. Sea levels will rise, leading to flooding, and extremes of temperature will become more common. The UK Met Office has forecast that the global average surface temperature for the five-year period to 2023 is predicted to be around 1.0 °C above pre-industrial levels. Just before Christmas the COP 25 meeting in Madrid ended with a compromise deal. All countries will need to put new climate pledges on the table by the time of the next major conference in Glasgow at the end of 2020. But there were no decisions on the future of carbon trading and big players such as US, India, China and Brazil opposed calls to be more ambitious in our pledges to reduce man made global warming. Across 2020 in Discovery Matt McGrath will be reporting on what is happening to save the planet. In this first programme he takes stock after Madrid and finds out what the world’s key players say has to be done before the meeting in Glasgow.(Photo: Man with placards and amplifier on global strike for climate change. Credit: Halfpoint/Getty Images)

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.