Credit where it is due
This speech was produced and published by the United Nations. MEER links to the official recording rather than reposting it.
Conference Talks archive
ConferenceCOP26
David Attenborough's address to world leaders at COP26
The People's Advocate for COP26 asks whether this generation will be the one that finally stabilises the climate.
Sir David Attenborough · People's Advocate for COP26
United Nations
Location
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Date
November 1, 2021
Type
Conference presentation
- Climate Change
- Climate Policy
- COP26
- United Nations
- Climate Communication
- Global Heating
- Carbon Emissions
- Climate Action
MEER conference talks · video archive
The argument
About this talk
Published by the United Nations. Opening the World Leaders Summit at COP26 in Glasgow, Sir David Attenborough sets the climate crisis in the long view of human and planetary history, tracing the rise in atmospheric carbon against the stability that allowed civilisation to develop.
He argues that the generation now in power is the first to understand the problem fully and the last able to act in time, and asks leaders to turn that understanding into decisions.
This recording is published by the United Nations on its official YouTube channel. Credit and all rights belong to the United Nations and the speaker; MEER links to it for reference only.
Indexed knowledge
Key topics covered
01
Climate Change
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02
Climate Policy
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03
COP26
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04
United Nations
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05
Climate Communication
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06
Global Heating
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07
Carbon Emissions
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08
Climate Action
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The signal
Key takeaways
Stability made civilisation possible
Attenborough frames the Holocene's steady climate as the precondition for everything humans have built.
The decisive decade
The argument is that this generation of leaders is both the first able to understand the problem and the last able to prevent the worst of it.
Why MEER includes it
Emissions cuts set the long-term trajectory; MEER's surface cooling work addresses the heat people face in the meantime.
Questions worth asking
Frequently asked questions
About the speaker
Sir David Attenborough
People's Advocate for COP26 · United Nations
Sir David Attenborough is a broadcaster and natural historian whose documentary work has shaped public understanding of the natural world for more than seventy years. He was appointed People's Advocate for COP26, representing public concern about climate change to world leaders.
About the conference
COP26
COP26, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, was held in Glasgow in November 2021. Sir David Attenborough addressed the opening World Leaders Summit as the conference's People's Advocate. This recording is published by the United Nations on its official YouTube channel; credit and all rights belong to the United Nations and the speaker.
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Official conference websiteDownloads and further reading
