The Climate Question20 Nov 2025

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

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, Climate Question Host Jordan Dunbar has been telling our friends on The Global Story podcast the true story of the man once nicknamed "the high priest of the carbon club".

With episodes each weekday, The Global Story is where the world and America meet. The world is changing. Decisions made in the US and by the second Trump administration are accelerating that change. But they are also a symptom of it. With Asma Khalid in DC, Tristan Redman in London, and the backing of the BBC’s international newsroom, The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption.

For The Global Story podcast

Producers: Aron Keller and Cat Farnsworth Executive producer: James Shield Mix: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(309)

Is this a new era of wildfires?

Huge wildfires have been sweeping across Southern Europe and North America. Is climate change increasing the risk? And what can we do? Weather experts say the world is starting to see new types of wil...

9 Aug 22min

How is climate change affecting motherhood?

Graihagh Jackson talks to mothers from India, Kenya and the UK about how climate change is affecting women's decisions about whether to have children and how to raise them.Her guests are Bhavreen Kand...

2 Aug 26min

Do climate protests ever work?

Climate activists have blocked highways, scaled oil rigs and even thrown soup at master artworks. But have protests ever made a difference? The modern green movement started in the 1970s when Greenpea...

26 Jul 26min

Could climate change fuel an epidemic?

Scientists are warning that climate change and deforestation increase the risk of outbreaks of deadly diseases. How big is the danger? And what action can we take? Dr Neil Vora is a so-called “disease...

19 Jul 26min

Can science fiction help us fight climate change?

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 spea...

12 Jul 26min

How to build a climate friendly city

More than seven billion of us are expected to be living in urban areas by 2050. So what are the world’s great cities doing about climate change? Humans are now city creatures – with more than half the...

5 Jul 26min

"Super" El Niños and climate change

Scientists say the El Niño weather pattern has started and this one is potentially so strong that it could have devastating effects in many parts of the world. So how does El Niño work exactly? And wh...

28 Jun 22min

Is climate change ruining our sleep?

Parts of India have been facing extreme heat - with temperatures soaring past 46 degrees Celsius. But a less familiar story unfolds after dark. When temperatures stay high after sunset, an essential h...

21 Jun 25min