Protesters gathered outside the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Madrid on Thursday, calling on Japan to stop supporting the use of coal, domestically and internationally.

One protester donned an oversized mask meant to represent Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, while another held up a sign reading, "Japan: stop coal finance".

Officials at this year's U.N. climate talks are hoping to achieve a breakthrough in long-running efforts to agree on rules for a global carbon trading system.

Economists say establishing an international market for carbon could unlock billions of dollars' worth of investments as countries and companies seek the most cost-effective way to cut emissions.

But the issue, known in the parlance of climate diplomacy as 'Article 6,' has defied agreement for years.

"There are some fundamental differences between parties that remain and it's going to be a lot of work to try to resolve those issues," said Kelly Levin, Senior Associate with the global climate program at World Resources Institute.

"This is really a COP that is dedicated largely to Article 6," she said, adding that a year of technical work and political pressure "will certainly aid the negotiations".   

With pressure growing from governments to resolve the deadlock, environmental campaigners say the two-week meeting in Madrid might finally result in a deal, after agreements were reached last year on almost all other parts of the rulebook governing the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Madrid - 5 December 2019

1. Protester wearing mask representing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, another holding sign reading (English): "Japan: stop coal finance"  

2. Protesters holding up banners

3. Protesters wearing large mask representing Abe

4. Protester holding bucket with text on it reading (English): "Coal"

5. Protesters and people dressed as fictional video game character Pikachu chanting, UPSOUND: "Sayonara (goodbye) coal"

6. Various of protester holding sign reading (English): "No coal Japan"

7. SOUNDBITE (English) no name given, protester:

"We don't want Japanese government to use coal anymore, because they said they're going to keep investing in coal and we don't want that to happen."

8. People protesting

9. Protester wearing Abe mask handing out coal from bucket  

10. Close of Abe mask

11. Protester saying UPSOUND (English): "Japan has been funding subsidies to expand coal in Asia"

12. Various of protesters chanting

Madrid - 4 December 2019

13. People walking past logo of COP25 Climate Change Conference inside venue

14. Various of Senior Associate with the global climate program of the World Resources Institute Kelly Levin

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Kelly Levin, Senior Associate with the global climate program at World Resources Institute:

"(On new Article 6 draft) we have altogether seven pages of text removed from Article 6.2 and Article 6.4 which are main elements of the text, so it's very streamlined, And there are really bright lines between options and it's much easier to understand, so that countries can choose. But there are some fundamental differences between parties that remain and it's going to be a lot of work to try to resolve those issues."

16. Conference venue

17. Text on wall reading (English): "Climate solutions for the future we want"

18. People in conference venue

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Kelly Levin, Senior Associate with the global climate program at World Resources Institute:

"A few things have changed since Katowice (COP24 in 2018), and the first is that this is really a COP that is dedicated largely to Article 6. There are some very critical issues as well, but in Katowice we had to put together the whole rulebook, so a lot of diverse action that was happening that was garnering a lot of attention. Second is that we've had a whole year of intense technical work and political pressure that will certainly aid the negotiations. And lastly, we have a lot of heads of delegations and eventually will be ministers next week who are paying attention to these issues in a new way that they haven't."

20. Participants talking in conference hall

21. COP25 Climate Change Conference logo

This year's international meeting on tackling climate change was meant to be a walk in the park compared to previous instalments.

Countries had planned to put the finishing touches to the rules governing the 2015 Paris accord, ironing out a few wrinkles left over from last December and setting the scene for a major review of their efforts next year.

But then Brazil pulled its offer of hosting the talks and stand-in Chile, rattled by anti-government protests, cancelled five weeks before the meeting.

President Donald Trump served formal notice that the United States was quitting the Paris accord, delivering a symbolic blow to one of his predecessor's signature achievements.

Scientists didn't have any good news either.

Study after study published in recent months has underscored the rapid pace of global warming and the urgent need to cut emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing it.

Against that backdrop, the December 2-13 meeting in Madrid has gained fresh urgency.

Organizers expect around 25,000 visitors, including heads of state, scientists, seasoned negotiators and activists to attend the two-week meeting.

The main items on the agenda include finalizing rules on global carbon markets and agreeing how poor countries should be compensated for destruction largely caused by emissions from rich nations.

Proposals to create a worldwide market for emissions permits have been around for decades.

The idea is that putting a price on carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, and gradually reducing the available permits will encourage countries and companies to cut their emissions, such as by shifting to renewable energy sources.

Scientists and activists say the time to act is now, if the world wants to meet the goal set in Paris of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), ideally 1.5C by the end of the century.

Madrid - 27 November 2019

1. Various of sign of COP25 Climate Change Conference - Chile Madrid 2019 outside conference venue

2. Spanish flag waving

3. Entrance of COP25 conference venue 'Feria de Madrid'

4. People walking past COP25 sign inside conference venue

5. COP25 logo on wall inside conference venue

Berlin - 5 November 2019

6. Johan Rockström, co-director of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, speaking with colleague

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Johan Rockström, co-director of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research:

"We are having a larger risk than we previously predicted, so global warming is going faster, climate impacts are occurring earlier, and that we are approaching potentially irreversible thresholds earlier than we previously thought."

Abaco - 5 September 2019

++MUTE++

8. Drone footage of people walking through the piles of debris from demolished buildings left by Hurricane Dorian

Busovaca - 14 May 2019

9. River Lasva rushing past houses in flooded area

10. Flooded house

Santiago - 23 August 2019

11. Dried land after severe drought

12. Dead cow on dried land

Berlin - 5 November 2019

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Johan Rockström, co-director of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research:

"We're talking of a change that has to occur at a pace which exceeds the industrial revolution that took us here, so we are talking of another revolution in terms of decarbonising the world economy, and you know, that is not sinking in yet."

Beijing - 6 January 2017

14. Cars driving down road in smog

15. People walking along wearing masks

16. Skyline showing city shrouded in smog

Berlin - 5 November 2019

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Jessica Strefler, researcher at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Transformation Pathways Department:

"We have waited so long with really ambitious climate protection that we need a combination of all the options that we have. We need mitigation, we need renewable energies, we need bio-energy, but we also need, for the last bit of emissions that we cannot avoid, we also need carbon removal."

Madrid - 27 November 2019

18. Sign of COP25 Climate Change Conference - Chile Madrid 2019 at entrance of conference venue

19. Participants in front of information sign inside conference venue

20. Tents outside conference venue entrance, reading (Spanish) "Welcome"

Rondonia State - 23 August 2019

21. Aerials of white smoke rising from burning Amazon forest

22. Various aerials of burned area and charred trees

Near Vila Nova Samuel - 26 August 2019

23. Firefighters walking with equipment to contain Amazon fire

24. Amazon forest burning

Geneva - 26 November 2019

25. SOUNDBITE (English) Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):

"There's a young girl who said that the house in on fire, and we should treat it as such. It's time to think about the house being on fire, and so yes, we absolutely need action, and action needs to be taken now. This is not something we can postpone."

Denver – 11 October 2019

26. Activists putting up banner that reads (English) "climate strike" at climate rally with Greta Thunberg

27. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, environmental activist:

"How dare they pretend that they are doing enough, when the politics needed are still nowhere in sight."

28. Activists with poster showing photograph of Greta Thunberg with the famous quote (English) "How dare you?"

Geneva - 26 November 2019

29. UN flag waving

30. SOUNDBITE (English) John Christensen, Director, UNEP-Danish Technology Institute Partnership:

"The IPCC, the UN climate panel, last year put out a 1.5 degree report that described the difference in terms of impacts from 1.5 up to 2, and they are really scary. And if you go beyond that, I mean, there's already been reports about a 4 degree world, and that's really something you don't want to live in. I mean, you have complete cities being flooded, you have coral reefs, eco-systems completely being destroyed. That's something, it's really hard to describe, because you don't even know what the tipping points are, I mean, if something really dramatic happens and so on. It's a place you don't want to go."

Venice - 17 November 2019

31. Various of flooding in Venice

Helheim Glacier - 14 August 2019

32. Drone footage of helicopter on the ice field of shrinking Helheim Glacier

33. Students sitting on the top of the mountain, Helheim Glacier in the background

34. Time lapse of sunset over Helheim Glacier ++MUTE++

Protesters gathered in the conference centre in Madrid where delegates are taking part in the COP25 climate talks.

The protest group included indigenous people from several continents, who held hands and demanded climate justice through slogans and songs.

The climate talks in Madrid entered choppier waters Wednesday with ministers struggling to agree on rules for a global carbon market and possible ways to compensate vulnerable countries for disasters caused by global warming.

Madrid - 11 December 2019

1. Various of protesters gathered inside venue for COP25 climate conference, chanting slogans

2. Security guard talking to protesters, telling them to stop, protesters start chanting loudly

3. Protesters chanting for climate justice

4. Security guards next to protest, protesters chanting UPSOUND: (English) "Let them go."

5. Protest

6. Various of security guards in a line pushing protesters back, other security guards talking to protesters

7. Wide of protesters chanting

8. People moving through corridor

World leaders were arriving on Monday for the start of a two-week international climate conference in Madrid that seeks to step up efforts to stop global warming.

The UN is warning that the efforts so far are insufficient to overcome the “point of no return” in climate change.

The summit, which moved to the Spanish capital after Chile had to pull out amid anti-government protests, aims to put the finishing touches to the rules governing the 2015 Paris accord.

That involves creating a functioning international emissions-trading system and compensating poor countries for losses they suffer from rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change.

CORRECTION: CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE SHOT 3 HAS BEEN AMENDED TO 'SPANISH ENVIRONMENT MINISTER TERESA RODRIGUEZ ARRIVING'. IT DOES NOT SHOW CANADIAN DEPUTY PM CHRYSTIA FREELAND, AS PREVIOUSLY WRITTEN++

Madrid - 2 December 2019

1. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte arriving for COP25 climate conference

2. New European Council President Charles Michel arriving

3. Spanish Environment Minister Teresa Rodriguez arriving

4. New European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arriving

5. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen arriving

6. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arriving

Climate activist Greta Thunberg said Tuesday she hoped the COP25 climate summit in Madrid would finally bring some good news after so many meetings.

Speaking to reporters after a press conference to mark her arrival in Lisbon, the teenage activist said she hoped that whoever won the next US election would think in the long term and not just the short term.

Thunberg is on her way to the UN Climate Change Conference in the Spanish capital.

She said she planned to keep pressing political leaders to make climate change their top priority.

Thunberg wants senior officials gathered in Madrid to "finally understand the urgency" of climate change and cooperate internationally.

The 16-year-old says "people are underestimating the force of angry kids".

Thunberg arrived in Portugal after sailing across the Atlantic.

She said she travelled by catamaran instead of plane to send a message that it is possible to live a sustainable lifestyle.

Thunberg will spend a few days in Lisbon catching up on news before attending a march on Friday in Madrid.

Lisbon - 3 December 2019

1. Various of climate activist Greta Thunberg at dockside

2. Thunberg arriving for interview

3. Cutaway Lisbon City Hall

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Climate activist: (on extinction rebellion actions planned for Madrid)

"As you know, I'm not very much updated but if it's peaceful and if no one gets harmed then I think I support it. I have no idea what I will do in Madrid yet so this is what I will try to work out now."

5. Cutaway of climate activists after press conference

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Climate activist:

"The message for COP25 will be that basically you have had so many meetings by now that you must get something good out of this, otherwise we are running out of time and we are watching you, the younger generation, and we will make sure that you actually must do something."

7. Wide of interview

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Climate activist: (on American elections if Trump is re-elected)

"I don't know what will help. Maybe that will cause more people to wake up to the reality if he wins again. You can never predict those kinds of things, but I just hope that someone wins who can think in the long term, not just the short term."

9. Cutaway photographer

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Climate activist:

"I feel strange when I get applauded by people in power and those who just want everything to continue like now, because it's obvious that it's them I'm criticising, but they can't show that in front of the camera. They cannot show any defeat, they don't want to be criticised in front of the camera, so they just play along with it. It's quite funny sometimes."

11. Pan from cameras to Thunberg

12. Thunberg leaving surrounded by people

Acting Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, on Saturday visited the site of this year's COP25 climate change conference.

The conference was meant to have been held in Santiago de Chile, but weeks of violent street protests forced the Chile government to cancel.

Spain has organised the conference in Madrid's IFEMA (Institución Ferial de Madrid - Fair Institution of Madrid) exhibition centre in less that three weeks.

Energy and Environment Minister, Teresa Ribera, said the venue was no longer to be considered "Spanish territory, this is now multilateral United Nations."

Delegates from almost 200 countries had hoped to put the finishing touches to the rules governing the 2015 Paris accord, ironing out a few wrinkles left over from last year’s conference in Katowice, Poland, and setting the scene for a major review of their efforts in 2020.

But Brazil pulled its offer of hosting the talks and stand-in Chile, rattled by anti-government protests, cancelled five weeks before the meeting.

Next, US President Donald Trump served formal notice the United States was quitting the Paris accord, delivering a symbolic blow to one of his predecessor’s signature achievements.

And with scientists issuing dire warnings about the pace of global warming and the need to urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions, officials are under pressure to send a message they are serious about combating climate change

Against that backdrop, the December 2-13 meeting in Madrid has gained fresh impetus.

Organisers expect around 25,000 visitors, including heads of state, scientists, seasoned negotiators and activists to attend.

Madrid – 30 November 2019

1. Acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visiting UN area of COP25 (2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference) with the Spanish Energy and Environment Minister, Teresa Ribera

2. Sanchez and Ribera posing for pictures

3. Sanchez entering heads of state meeting room

4. Sanchez, Ribera and COP25 volunteers posing for pictures

5. Wide of COP25 conference room

6. Wide of Ribera, Chilean Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt, and United Nations Executive Secretary for Climate Convention Patricia Espinosa being introduced on stage

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Carolina Schmidt, Chilean Environment Minister:

"Today we will open the COP.... COP25, a claim for urgency and ambition to really reach the goal to stop the climate change in the world."

8. Chilean, United Nations and Spanish flags

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Teresa Ribera, Spanish Energy and Environment Minister:

"From now onwards this is not anymore Spanish territory. This is now multilateral United Nations, the Chilean space for climate action. The flags are there. The flag of the United Nations together with the Chilean and the Spanish ones, meaning how much we can do when we work together."

10. Various of Ribera, Schmidt and Espinosa posing for pictures

LEAD IN:

At the U.N.'s COP25 climate talks in Madrid world leaders revealed ambitious plans to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Foresters, in Scotland, are already fighting climate change by planting millions of trees a year in order to remove more carbon from the atmosphere.

Last year the country reached its target by planting 22 million saplings on more than 10-thousand hectares of land.

STORY-LINE:

Bruce Spalding, who grew up in the highlands of Scotland, has been a forester all his life.

He says professionals like him can plant up to 2,000 trees a day.

By his own estimation, it takes him just 10 seconds to plant a tree.

To maximise his efficiency, he uses a special pouch to hold the tools of his trade.

"This is called a Canadian planting harness and basically it allows the planter to have different species of trees. We've got three pouches, one either side and one on the back and also it can double up as a bag for holding fertiliser for putting some fertiliser on the young trees as well," Spalding says.

Although planting season is usually in the winter, foresters have to keep a close watch on saplings and young trees as they are the most vulnerable in the first years after planting and sometimes have to be replaced.

Spalding is doing just that by planting trees in areas where the last season's saplings did not survive.

"I'm replacing dead trees for the last time. This particular part of the plantation is five years old and every year after planting you walk every row basically and replace the dead trees, so this is the last time I'm doing that."

Scotland exceeded its planting target of 10-thousand hectares for the first time this year (2019).

One hectare is about the size of a rugby or American football field.

The Scottish Government's Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Environment Mairi Gougeon says they plan to increase this target in the coming years.

"We've made this a massive focus for the government because obviously we're facing a climate emergency and we have to try and do everything we can to try and tackle that and a huge part of that is tree planting because there's so many benefits that come from that."

"There's the huge amounts of carbon that trees store, but as well as the knock on benefits that that has for the economy. So we've set really ambitious targets for the next few years so our targets right now are to plant 10,000 hectares a year. Last year we beat that target. We planted 11,200 hectares and to try and put that in context that is about 22 million trees and that stores about nine and a half tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere so it's absolutely incredible but we don't think that that's good enough and we've increased those targets so that by 2025 we hope to be planting 15,000 hectares of new trees every year."

According to Scotland's Forestry Strategy, 100 years ago only 5 percent of Scotland's land was covered in trees.

The country's trees were removed to make way for agriculture and infrastructure.

The Forestry Act of 1919 was introduced to tackle the problem and by 2019 19 percent of the country is now covered in woodlands.

The government aims to increase this to 21 percent of tree coverage by 2032.

With the help from Scottish Government grant schemes, the majority of those planting Scotland's new woodlands are private companies.

Stuart Goodall is the CEO of Confor, an organisation that represents commercial forestry and the wood processing sector.

Goodall says part of the initiative to up the scale of tree planting is due to a projected shortfall in timber in the coming years.

"For us tree planting is an extremely important thing. We've got a number of drivers for that. As forestry people we love the idea of there being more forests with the benefits that they provide, but we've also got a challenge wherein about 20 to 50 years time we've got a shortfall in timber and we know we need to be planting more trees now in order to provide those increased supplies to help fill that falling away of availability."

"So we've been working with the Scottish Government for some years now to put in place a scheme which pays people who wish to plant trees and to make sure that's attractive and it also operates efficiently and as a result we've seen a significant increase in tree planting in recent years."

According to the Environment Agency, flooding in the UK has increased over the last decade due to an increase in extreme weather events.

As global temperatures and sea levels rise, intense storms are becoming more prevalent.

Goodall says for Scotland, a country with heavy rainfall that is prone to flooding especially in the summer months, trees can act as a flood defence as they soak up so much water.

"It means that we're planting in some cases for flood prevention. A lot of the land, the hills, were denuded of trees hundreds of years ago when we introduced sheep. So now by putting trees back into the landscape we're starting to protect areas in a natural way from flooding," he says.

The Woodland Trust, a charity which focuses on planting trees native to Scotland and restoring existing woodlands, manages the Kinclaven Bluebell Wood.

Here the charity is working with volunteers from the community in planting 34-thousand trees over a two-year period.

The saplings on the edge of the forest are protectively covered to make it difficult for deer to get to them.

One of the big challenges for young trees in Scotland in their first years is shielding them from being eaten by hungry animals.

George Anderson, a spokesman for the Woodland Trust, says the country could do even better and plant more trees each year.

"We think that the 10,000-hectare target was quite a modest one so we need to at least keep that going but with climate change breathing down our necks we have to do a lot better. And literally every tree is a soldier in the battle against climate change. Every tree we can get in the ground is going to soak up carbon."

Anderson says part of Scotland's success in reforestation lies in cooperation between the government, those who work in commercial forestry and those in conservation.

"We are now all singing from the same hymn sheet really and the Scottish Government has played a role in that. The government listens to us as they listen to the commercial sector."

"And they see forestry as an important part of our country so I think that has been the reason. It's got a higher profile here than it has in other parts of the UK and it's seen as being important so I think a lot of the problems we used to have, they still have elsewhere, but because we're in a smaller unit we can speak to each other. We understand each other more and there's a common purpose. I think climate change gives us a common purpose."

The Scottish Government intends to increase the number of trees it plants year on year and by 2024/2025 it aims to be planting 15-thousand hectares a year.

In Madrid, climate talks entered uncharted waters with ministers trying to agree on rules for a global carbon market and possible ways to compensate vulnerable countries for disasters caused by global warming.

World leaders agreed in Paris four years ago to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), ideally no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) by the end of the century.

Scientists say countries will miss both of those goals by a wide margin unless drastic steps are taken to begin cutting greenhouse gas emissions next year.

The U.N.'s COP25 climate conference ends December 13th 2019.

Warroch Hill forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

1. Wide of forester Bruce Spalding planting a tree

2. Mid of Spalding removing tree from satchel

3. Close of Spalding planting sapling

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Spalding, forester:

"This is called a Canadian planting harness and basically it allows the planter to have different species of trees. We've got three pouches, one either side and one on the back, and also it can double up as a bag for holding fertiliser, for putting some fertiliser on the young trees as well."

5. Various of Spalding planting a tree

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Spalding, forester:

"I'm replacing dead trees for the last time. This particular part of the plantation is five years old and every year after planting you walk every row basically and replace the dead trees, so this is the last time I'm doing that."

7. Various of Spalding planting trees

8. Various of saplings

9. Wide of Spalding walking past a sapling

10. Wide of Spalding planting a tree

11. Wide of Spalding in field

Pendreich Forest, Stirling, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

12. Various of Mairi Gougeon, Scottish Government's Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Environment, having photograph taken

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mairi Gougeon, Scottish Government's Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Environment:

"We've made this a massive focus for the government because obviously we're facing a climate emergency and we have to try and do everything we can to try and tackle that. And a huge part of that is tree planting because there's so many benefits that come from that. There's the huge amounts of carbon that trees store, but as well as the knock on benefits that that has for the economy. So we've set really ambitious targets over the next few years. So our targets right now are to plant 10,000 hectares a year. Last year we beat that target. We planted 11,200 hectares and to try and put that in context, that is about 22 million trees and that stores about nine and a half tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere, so it's absolutely incredible but we don't think that that's good enough and we've increased those targets so that by 2025 we hope to be planting 15,000 hectares of new trees every year."

Warroch Hill Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

14. Wide of forest

15. Close of trees

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - 6 August 2019

16. Wide of Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor forestry organisation, walking

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor forestry organisation:

"For us tree planting is an extremely important thing. We've got a number of drivers for that. One is, obviously, as forestry people we love the idea of there being more forests with the benefits that they provide. But we've also got a challenge wherein about 20 to 50 years time we've got a shortfall in timber and we know we need to be planting more trees now in order to provide those increased supplies to help fill that falling away of availability. So we've been working with the Scottish Government for some years now to put in place a scheme which pays people who wish to plant trees and to make sure that's attractive and it also operates efficiently. And as a result we've seen a significant increase in tree planting in recent years."

Warroch Hill Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

18. Pan of forest

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - 6 August 2019

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor forestry organisation:

"It's interesting that with climate change, and Scotland is a wet country and in summer we can suffer from floods, and trees because they soak up water, basically they intercept water. It means that we're planting them in some cases for flood prevention. A lot of the land, the hills, were denuded of trees hundreds of years ago when we introduced sheep. So now by putting trees back into the landscape we're starting to protect areas in a natural way from flooding."

Kinclaven Bluebell Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

20. Wide of The Woodland Trust Bluebell Wood sign

21. Various of newly planted trees in tubes

22. Wide of George Anderson, spokesman for The Woodland Trust, checking a newly planted tree, UPSOUND (English): "Yip, that's a nice little guy in here."

23. Close of Anderson checking newly planted tree

24. SOUNDBITE (English) George Anderson, spokesman for The Woodland Trust:

"We think that the 10,000-hectare target was quite a modest one. So we need to at least keep that going. But with climate change breathing down our necks we have to do a lot better. And literally every tree is a soldier in the battle against climate change. Every tree we can get in the ground is going to soak up carbon."

25. Various of trees in Kinclaven Bluebell Forest

26. SOUNDBITE (English) George Anderson, spokesman for The Woodland Trust:

"We are now all singing from the same hymn sheet really and the Scottish Government has played a role in that. And the government listens to us as they listen to the commercial sector. And they see forestry as an important part of our country so I think that has been the reason. It's got a higher profile here than it has in other parts of the UK and it's seen as being more important. So I think a lot of the problems that we used to have, they still have elsewhere. But because we're in a smaller unit we can speak to each other, we understand each other more and there's a common purpose. I think climate change gives us a common purpose."

Warroch Hill Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

27. Close of sapling being planted

28. Various of newly planted trees

Kinclaven Bluebell Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

29. Wide of tree in Bluebell Forest

The finance ministers of Chile and Finland on Monday called for countries to "put a price on carbon."

Speaking at the COP25 climate conference in Madrid, Finnish finance minister Mika Lintilä said it was necessary to "align our economic policies according to the Paris agreement."

Lintila said nations needed to mobilize "both public and private finance and investments to support the fight against climate change."

Both Chile and Finland are members of the "Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action" which aims to put the Paris agreement into action.

The coalition has endorsed six "Helsinki Principles" which are designed to help finance ministers share best practices on macro, fiscal and public finance policies to encourage low carbon and climate resilient growth,

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) echoed Lintilä's remarks.

She reminded finance ministers that they hold the purse strings and therefore the means to align policies to "achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible."

The coalition of finance ministers was first launched at the World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings in April 2019. It is the first time that finance ministers are meeting under the umbrella of the COP.

Madrid, 9 December 2019

1. Boardroom with audience and stage

2. Audience members

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Mika Lintilä, Finnish Finance Minister:

"And what we have been repeating year after year is that we need to put a price on carbon. We need to align our economic policies according to the Paris agreement. And we need to mobilize both public and private finance and investments to support the fight against climate change."

4. Various of audience

5. Camera operator

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Mika Lintilä, Finnish finance minister:

"We are not here just only to save the planet and realize that we have to build our economies according to the constructions that come from the planetary boundaries. We are here to save our economies and save the welfare of our people."

7. Boardroom with stage and audience

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary UNFCCC:

"Let me put it bluntly: as ministers of finance, you hold the purse strings. The world needs you to align your policies to support the Paris agreement and work immediately to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible. Our goals are clear. Reduce emissions 45 % by 2030, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and stabilize global temperatures at no more than 1.5 degrees by the end of the century. None of this can be achieved without finance."

9. Various of panelists leaving to applause

WORLD COP PREVIEW

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS/ POOL

RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only

LENGTH: 8:50

SHOTLIST:

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Putaendo (107km north west of Santiago), Chile – 23 September 2019

1. Various of dying calf

2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Alfredo Estay, breeder:

"I do not count them because every day one dies, (or) two, three."

3. Pan of Putaendo river dried up

4. Mid of dead goat

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, United States - 25 November 2019

5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer   

"We're seeing more extreme weather because we have more heat trapping gases in the air. So what that does is climate change affects the extremes. You see more droughts, you see more downpours and less of the middle."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Venice, Italy  - 17 November 2019

6.  Various of high water in Saint Mark's Square

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, United States - 25 November 2019

7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer   

" In California, we have seen a five-fold increase in wildfires since the 80s, and that has been connected to climate change."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Somis, California, United States  – 2 November 2019

8. Charred avocado trees, fire fighter walks past the grove

9. Various charred avocados

10. Various damaged trees

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil  - 3 September 2019

11. Mid of forest fire

12. Walking shot through burnt forest

13. Various of firefighters and soldiers putting out fire

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 25 October 2019

14. Various of Carlos Nobre, a climate expert and member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, giving a lecture

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlos Nobre, member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences:

"We are closer to an irreversible disaster, a collapse, with between 60 up to 70% over the whole Amazon forest, than we thought a few years ago. "

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil  - 3 September 2019

16. Various of forest fire

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 25 October 2019

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlos Nobre, member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences:

"Many studies have indicated that deforestation plus global warming acting together might drive the forest to disappear "

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Near Vila Nova Samuel, Rondonia State,Brazil  - 25 August 2019

18. Various of burnt trees  

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 25 October 2019

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlos Nobre, member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences:

"The length of the dry season (in the south of the Amazon) is becoming longer. In the forest areas this dry season is even longer. The forest in those areas is removing less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And during the dry season the temperature in that area is 3 degrees warmer than 50 years ago. Part of that warming is global warming, but part is not, it is because the forest is losing its capacity to recycle water"

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Near Conquista D'oeste, Mato Grosso, Brazil  - 26 August 2019

20. Aerial of some of the Nambikwara Sarare indigenous people standing looking up at drone ++Mute++

21. Nambikwara Sarare tribe seated

22. Sarare river

23. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Saulo Katitaurlu, leader of the Nambikwara Sarare tribe:

"Some years ago there were a few (fires) but now there are more. With the Amazon burning, this is the largest that ever happened and the smoke is coming here. Today the sky is clean but two days ago it was full of smoke and hot. It never happened here before, but today we have this difficulty because of that problem."

24. Various of indigenous children playing on tree

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 25 October 2019

25. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlos Nobre, member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences:

"The Amazon (has) maybe 15 to 30 years before irreversibly becoming a dry savannah. So a large portion of the southern Amazon."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Canutama, Amazonas State, Brazil - 2 September 2019

26. Various drone footage of land recently burned and deforested ++MUTE ++

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Near Vila Nova Samuel, Rondonia State, Brazil - 25 August 2019

27. Various of smouldering trees and smoke

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Helheim Glacier, eastern Greenland - 14 August 2019

28. Students sitting on the top of the mountain, Helheim Glacier in the background

29. SOUNDBITE (English) David Holland, NYU Air and ocean scientist:

"So this is Helheim Glacier, far off to my right, in front the melange is the Helheim Fjord. And this glacier has retreated more than 10 kilometres or so in the last decade or so from that position far off from my left to where you see it today."

30. David Holland points to the edge of glacier, UPSOUND (English) "So that's where the ice is grounded on the sea floor down about 800 metres."

31. Sunset over Helheim Glacier ++TIME LAPSE++

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, United States - 25 November 2019

32. SOUNDBITE: (English) Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer   

"Two biggest climate stories of 2019 are Greta Thunberg and Donald Trump, and they're on opposite ends."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, United States - 23 September 2019

33. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg being escorted by security as President Donald Trump arrives at the United Nations, pull-out as President Trump arrives

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, United States - 25 November 2019

34. SOUNDBITE: (English) Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer   

" Donald Trump, who still denies that climate change is real and has pulled the United States out of the Paris agreement."

POOL

Washington, United States - November 3, 2019

35.Trump approaches cameras after stepping off Marine One helicopter

36. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, US President

"You got fires eating away at California every year because management is so bad, the governor doesn't know -- he's like a child. He doesn't know what he's doing."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Somis, California, United States  - 31 October 2019

37. Firefighters spraying fire on mountainside

38. Various of fire on mountainside

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, United States - 25 November 2019

39. SOUNDBITE: (English) Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer   

"Greta Thunberg has been part of a global movement by young people, she is not the only one. She is just the visible symbol. And things have coalesced around her and her Friday strikes in just a year and a half. It went from her outside the parliament there to a global thing where millions of people are stopping work and school on Fridays."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington, DC, United States - 13 September 2019

40. Mid shot of demonstrators singing with Greta sitting among them

41. Wide shot of demonstration

42. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Teen climate change activist: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++

"I am so incredibly grateful for every single one of you and I'm so proud of you ."

43. Pull out to wide shot of crowd chanting "Greta, Greta..."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 25 October 2019

44. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlos Nobre, member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences:

"Teenagers of today are putting their fingers in the in the heads of our generation, the adults, saying you are not doing what you should do. You are really harming my future. You are putting my future at risk. And then these children also, they see their future closely linked to the sustainability of the planet."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Stockholm, Sweden - 26 July 2019

45. Wide of banners and small group of young people sitting near parliament

46. Banner reading (English) "We have no Planet B"

47. Climate activist Greta Thunberg sitting on the ground next to Swedish parliament with other youth protesters

48. Wide of small group of protesters

49. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, climate activist:

"We are facing a global crisis and if we don't do anything soon then it might be too late to undo the irreversible climate breakdown. And we need to stand together, no matter where you are from or who you are. So please try to understand what is happening. We need to hold the older generations accountable and do whatever we can to show that we have had enough."

50. Close up of sign reading (English) "Ignorance is death"

51. Pan from protesters to parliament

52. Close up of sign reading (Swedish) "School Strike for Climate"

LEADIN

The climate youth movement, led by Greta Thunberg, has been one of the biggest news stories this year in which extreme weather and climate change events have often dominated the headlines.  

STORYLINE:

In September 2019 rural Chile faced its worst drought in half a century.

Farmer Alfredo Estay could only watch as his cattle died one by one.  

When the Associated Press visited Estay in September he said he had about 80 cows and a handful of calves left out of a total of 180 because hunger and thirst had starved them to death.

"I do not count them because every day one dies, (or) two, three." he said.

Chile is among the 10 most vulnerable countries in the world due to the impact of climate change.

It meets seven of the nine criteria designations established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, including less rainfall and lower river flows.

Associated Press Science Writer, Seth Borenstein, explains how a warming climate affects our weather. "We're seeing more extreme weather because we have more heat trapping gases in the air. So what that does is climate change affects the extremes. You see more droughts, you see more downpours and less of the middle."

The historic Italian city of Venice is famous for its waterways, but in early November high tides inundated its famous piazzas.

It was the first time since records began in 1872 that three high tides had hit at least 1.5 metres in the same year - let alone the same week.

Venice's mayor has put the flooding damage at hundreds of millions of euros and Italian officials declared a state of emergency for the area.

Australia, Brazil and California have been plagued by devastating wildfires.

"In California, we have seen a fivefold increase in wildfires since the 80s, and that has been connected to climate change" says Borenstein.

In Somis a fire burned nearly 15 square miles (39 sq. kilometers) and continues to threaten more than 2,500 homes and other buildings, charring avocado orchards.

The Brazil Amazon rainforest was hit by a wave of fires this year prompting global outrage.

August saw the highest number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon since 2010, and a sharp increase compared to the year before.

Since the start of the year until early September there were more than 95,500 fires in Brazil, up 59% from the same period in 2018, according to Brazilian government data.

Carlos Nobre, one of Brazil's most prominent scientists, says that we're close to a "tipping point "We are closer to an irreversible disaster, a collapse, with between 60 up to 70% over the whole Amazon forest, than we thought a few years ago. "

"Many studies have indicated that deforestation plus global warming acting together might drive the forest to disappear " he adds.

Nobre, a University of Sao Paulo climate scientist, says the Amazon acts as a sink, draining heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Currently, the world is emitting around 40 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.

The Amazon absorbs 2 billion tons of CO2 per year (or 5% of annual emissions), making it a vital part of preventing climate change.

Fires in the Amazon not only mean the carbon-absorbing forest is disappearing, but the flames themselves are emitting millions of tons of carbon every day.

The rainforest recycles its own water to produce a portion of the region's rain, so deforestation makes rains less frequent, extending the dry season says Nobre.

"The length of the dry season (in the south of the Amazon) is becoming longer. In the forest areas this dry season is even longer. The forest in those areas is removing less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. And  during the dry season the temperature in that area is 3 degrees warmer than 50 years ago. Part of that warming is global warming, but part is not it is because the forest is losing its capacity to recycle water" he explains.

Nobre estimates that if 20% to 25% of the forest is destroyed, the dry season will expand enough that it will no longer be a forest, but a savannah.

The recent fires in the Amazon are not wildfires. They were manmade and are mostly set illegally by landgrabbers who are clearing the forest for cattle ranching and crops.

Deforesting the Amazon is a long, slow process.

People clear the land by cutting down the vegetation during the rainy season, letting the trees dry out and burning them during the dry season.

Fully clearing the dense forest for agricultural use can take several years of slashing and burning.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has decreased the power and autonomy of forest protection agencies, which he says get in the way of licensing for developing land.

Brazil's indigenous population is witnessing their forest home disappearing. They say the government isn't doing enough to tackle the problem.

In an indigenous reserve near Conquista D'Oeste, Mato Grosso state, they complained that environmental officials were carrying out fewer inspections than in the past.

According to Nambikwara Sarare leaders, the fires were affecting their lives and their land, bringing disease and damaging animal life.

"Some years ago there were a few (fires) but now there are more. With the Amazon burning, this is the largest (fire) that ever happened and the smoke is coming here" said Saulo Katitaurlu, the leader of the Nambikwara Sarare tribe.

In the Arctic the ice is melting.

Summer this year has hit Greenland hard with record-shattering heat and an extreme melt.

One of the places hit hardest is here on the southeastern edge of the giant frozen island.

Helheim, one of Greenland's fastest-retreating glaciers, has shrunk about 6 miles (10 kilometres) since scientists came here in 2005.

According to several scientists, also studying melting ice in Greenland, what's happening is a combination of man-made climate change and natural but weird weather patterns.

Glaciers here do shrink in the summer and grow in the winter, but nothing like this year.

New York University air and ocean scientist, David Holland, is here to collect data to help explain why salty, warm, once-tropical water attacking the glacier's "underbelly" has been bubbling to the surface.

"So this is Helheim Glacier far off to my right, in front the melange is the Helheim Fjord. And this glacier has retreated more than 10 kilometres or so in the last decade or so from that position far off from my left to where you see it today" he said in August.

A NASA satellite found that Greenland's ice sheet lost about 255 billion metric tons of ice a year between 2003 and 2016, with the loss rate generally getting worse over that period.

Holland suspects that the warm, salty water that comes in part from the Gulf Stream in North America is playing a bigger role than previously thought in melting Greenland's ice.

And if that's the case, that's probably bad news for the planet, because it means faster and more melting and higher sea-level rise.

According to NASA scientists, by the year 2100, Greenland alone could cause 3 or 4 feet (more than 1 metre) of sea-level rise.

Two of the biggest climate stories of 2019 were the global youth climate movement and US President Donald Trump withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Trump also threatened to cut U.S. funding to California for aid during wildfires that have burned across the state during dry winds this fall (autumn).

Trump tweeted that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has done a "terrible job of forest management."

"He's like a child, he doesn't know what he's doing," said Trump.

However, the Californian state controls just a small percentage of forest land. The federal government manages most of it.

Borenstein says that both Trump and Greta Thunberg have become symbols for people who hold opposing views on climate change.

"Greta Thunberg has been part of a global movement by young people, she is not the only one. She is just the visible symbol. And things have coalesced around her and her Friday strikes in just a year and a half. It went from her outside the parliament there to a global thing where millions of people are stopping work in school on Fridays."

Nobre agrees that global leaders need to listen to the next generation.

"Teenagers of today are putting their fingers in the in the heads of of our generation, the adults, saying you are not doing what you should do. You are really harming my future. You are putting my future at risk. And then these children also, they see their future closely linked to the sustainability of the planet" he says.

Thunberg, the Swedish teenager whose social media-savvy brand of eco-activism has inspired tens of thousands of students in Europe to skip classes and protest for faster action against climate change is on her way to the climate talks in Madrid from the United States, hitching a lift on a eco-friendly sailing boat.

Since starting her "school strikes" in August 2018, Thunberg has appeared before policymakers at last year's U.N. climate conference in Poland, challeneged business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and met with Pope Francis, who praised Thunberg's efforts and encouraged her to continue campaigning.

Thunberg has arguably become the figurehead for a new generation of European eco-activists worried that they'll suffer the fallout from their parents' and grandparents' unwillingness to take strong action to combat climate change.

Thunberg, who spoke to the Associated Press in July, had a message for young people :

"We are facing a global crisis and if we don't do anything soon then it might be too late to undo the irreversible climate breakdown. And we need to stand together, no matter where you are from or who you are. So please try to understand what is happening. We need to hold the older generations accountable and do whatever we can to show that we have had enough."

The United Nations Climate talks are taking place in Madrid from Dec. 2-13.  

====

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UK TREE PLANTING ++REPLAY/ WITH UPDATED SCRIPT++

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only

LENGTH: 6:57

SHOTLIST:

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Warroch Hill forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

1. Wide of forester Bruce Spalding planting a tree

2. Mid of Spalding removing tree from satchel

3. Close of Spalding planting sapling

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Spalding, forester:

"This is called a Canadian planting harness and basically it allows the planter to have different species of trees. We've got three pouches, one either side and one on the back, and also it can double up as a bag for holding fertiliser, for putting some fertiliser on the young trees as well."

5. Various of Spalding planting a tree

6.  SOUNDBITE (English) Bruce Spalding, forester:

"I'm replacing dead trees for the last time. This particular part of the plantation is five years old and every year after planting you walk every row basically and replace the dead trees, so this is the last time I'm doing that."

7. Various of Spalding planting trees

8. Various of saplings

9. Wide of Spalding walking past a sapling

10. Wide of Spalding planting a tree

11. Wide of Spalding in field

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Pendreich Forest, Stirling, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

12. Various of Mairi Gougeon, Scottish Government's Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Environment, having photograph taken

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mairi Gougeon, Scottish Government's Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Environment:

"We've made this a massive focus for the government because obviously we're facing a climate emergency and we have to try and do everything we can to try and tackle that. And a huge part of that is tree planting because there's so many benefits that come from that. There's the huge amounts of carbon that trees store, but as well as the knock on benefits that that has for the economy. So we've set really ambitious targets over the next few years. So our targets right now are to plant 10,000 hectares a year. Last year we beat that target. We planted 11,200 hectares and to try and put that in context, that is about 22 million trees and that stores about nine and a half tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere, so it's absolutely incredible but we don't think that that's good enough and we've increased those targets so that by 2025 we hope to be planting 15,000 hectares of new trees every year."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Warroch Hill Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

14. Wide of forest

15. Close of trees

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - 6 August 2019

16. Wide of Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor forestry organisation, walking

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor forestry organisation:

"For us tree planting is an extremely important thing. We've got a number of drivers for that. One is, obviously, as forestry people we love the idea of there being more forests with the benefits that they provide. But we've also got a challenge wherein about 20 to 50 years time we've got a shortfall in timber and we know we need to be planting more trees now in order to provide those increased supplies to help fill that falling away of availability. So we've been working with the Scottish Government for some years now to put in place a scheme which pays people who wish to plant trees and to make sure that's attractive and it also operates efficiently. And as a result we've seen a significant increase in tree planting in recent years."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Warroch Hill Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

18. Pan of forest

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK - 6 August 2019

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor forestry organisation:

"It's interesting that with climate change, and Scotland is a wet country and in summer we can suffer from floods, and trees because they soak up water, basically they intercept water. It means that we're planting them in some cases for flood prevention. A lot of the land, the hills, were denuded of trees hundreds of years ago when we introduced sheep. So now by putting trees back into the landscape we're starting to protect areas in a natural way from flooding."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Kinclaven Bluebell Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

20. Wide of The Woodland Trust Bluebell Wood sign

21. Various of newly planted trees in tubes

22. Wide of George Anderson, spokesman for The Woodland Trust, checking a newly planted tree, UPSOUND (English): "Yip, that's a nice little guy in here."

23. Close of Anderson checking newly planted tree

24. SOUNDBITE (English) George Anderson, spokesman for The Woodland Trust:

"We think that the 10,000-hectare target was quite a modest one. So we need to at least keep that going. But with climate change breathing down our necks we have to do a lot better. And literally every tree is a soldier in the battle against climate change. Every tree we can get in the ground is going to soak up carbon."

25. Various of trees in Kinclaven Bluebell Forest

26. SOUNDBITE (English) George Anderson, spokesman for The Woodland Trust:

"We are now all singing from the same hymn sheet really and the Scottish Government has played a role in that. And the government listens to us as they listen to the commercial sector. And they see forestry as an important part of our country so I think that has been the reason. It's got a higher profile here than it has in other parts of the UK and it's seen as being more important. So I think a lot of the problems that we used to have, they still have elsewhere. But because we're in a smaller unit we can speak to each other, we understand each other more and there's a common purpose. I think climate change gives us a common purpose."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Warroch Hill Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

27. Close of sapling being planted

28. Various of newly planted trees

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Kinclaven Bluebell Forest, Scotland, UK - 7 August 2019

29. Wide of tree in Bluebell Forest  

LEADIN:

At the U.N.'s COP25 climate talks in Madrid world leaders revealed ambitious plans to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Foresters, in Scotland, are already fighting climate change by planting millions of trees a year in order to remove more carbon from the atmosphere.

Last year the country reached its target by planting 22 million saplings on more than 10-thousand hectares of land.

STORYLINE:

Bruce Spalding, who grew up in the highlands of Scotland, has been a forester all his life.

He says professionals like him can plant up to 2,000 trees a day.

By his own estimation, it takes him just 10 seconds to plant a tree.

To maximise his efficiency, he uses a special pouch to hold the tools of his trade.

"This is called a Canadian planting harness and basically it allows the planter to have different species of trees. We've got three pouches, one either side and one on the back and also it can double up as a bag for holding fertiliser for putting some fertiliser on the young trees as well," Spalding says.

Although planting season is usually in the winter, foresters have to keep a close watch on saplings and young trees as they are the most vulnerable in the first years after planting and sometimes have to be replaced.

Spalding is doing just that by planting trees in areas where the last season's saplings did not survive.

"I'm replacing dead trees for the last time. This particular part of the plantation is five years old and every year after planting you walk every row basically and replace the dead trees, so this is the last time I'm doing that."

Scotland exceeded its planting target of 10-thousand hectares for the first time this year (2019).

One hectare is about the size of a rugby or American football field.

The Scottish Government's Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Environment Mairi Gougeon says they plan to increase this target in the coming years.

"We've made this a massive focus for the government because obviously we're facing a climate emergency and we have to try and do everything we can to try and tackle that and a huge part of that is tree planting because there's so many benefits that come from that."

"There's the huge amounts of carbon that trees store, but as well as the knock on benefits that that has for the economy. So we've set really ambitious targets for the next few years so our targets right now are to plant 10,000 hectares a year. Last year we beat that target. We planted 11,200 hectares and to try and put that in context that is about 22 million trees and that stores about nine and a half tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere so it's absolutely incredible but we don't think that that's good enough and we've increased those targets so that by 2025 we hope to be planting 15,000 hectares of new trees every year."

According to Scotland's Forestry Strategy, 100 years ago only 5 percent of Scotland's land was covered in trees.

The country's trees were removed to make way for agriculture and infrastructure.

The Forestry Act of 1919 was introduced to tackle the problem and by 2019 19 percent of the country is now covered in woodlands.

The government aims to increase this to 21 percent of tree coverage by 2032.

With the help from Scottish Government grant schemes, the majority of those planting Scotland's new woodlands are private companies.

Stuart Goodall is the CEO of Confor, an organisation that represents commercial forestry and the wood processing sector.

Goodall says part of the initiative to up the scale of tree planting is due to a projected shortfall in timber in the coming years.

"For us tree planting is an extremely important thing. We've got a number of drivers for that. As forestry people we love the idea of there being more forests with the benefits that they provide, but we've also got a challenge wherein about 20 to 50 years time we've got a shortfall in timber and we know we need to be planting more trees now in order to provide those increased supplies to help fill that falling away of availability."

"So we've been working with the Scottish Government for some years now to put in place a scheme which pays people who wish to plant trees and to make sure that's attractive and it also operates efficiently and as a result we've seen a significant increase in tree planting in recent years."

According to the Environment Agency, flooding in the UK has increased over the last decade due to an increase in extreme weather events.

As global temperatures and sea levels rise, intense storms are becoming more prevalent.

Goodall says for Scotland, a country with heavy rainfall that is prone to flooding especially in the summer months, trees can act as a flood defence as they soak up so much water.

"It means that we're planting in some cases for flood prevention. A lot of the land, the hills, were denuded of trees hundreds of years ago when we introduced sheep. So now by putting trees back into the landscape we're starting to protect areas in a natural way from flooding," he says.

The Woodland Trust, a charity which focuses on planting trees native to Scotland and restoring existing woodlands, manages the Kinclaven Bluebell Wood.

Here the charity is working with volunteers from the community in planting 34-thousand trees over a two-year period.

The saplings on the edge of the forest are protectively covered to make it difficult for deer to get to them.

One of the big challenges for young trees in Scotland in their first years is shielding them from being eaten by hungry animals.

George Anderson, a spokesman for the Woodland Trust, says the country could do even better and plant more trees each year.

"We think that the 10,000-hectare target was quite a modest one so we need to at least keep that going but with climate change breathing down our necks we have to do a lot better. And literally every tree is a soldier in the battle against climate change. Every tree we can get in the ground is going to soak up carbon."

Anderson says part of Scotland's success in reforestation lies in cooperation between the government, those who work in commercial forestry and those in conservation.

"We are now all singing from the same hymn sheet really and the Scottish Government has played a role in that. The government listens to us as they listen to the commercial sector."

"And they see forestry as an important part of our country so I think that has been the reason. It's got a higher profile here than it has in other parts of the UK and it's seen as being important so I think a lot of the problems we used to have, they still have elsewhere, but because we're in a smaller unit we can speak to each other. We understand each other more and there's a common purpose. I think climate change gives us a common purpose."

The Scottish Government intends to increase the number of trees it plants year on year and by 2024/2025 it aims to be planting 15-thousand hectares a year.

In Madrid, climate talks entered uncharted waters with ministers trying to agree on rules for a global carbon market and possible ways to compensate vulnerable countries for disasters caused by global warming.

World leaders agreed in Paris four years ago to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), ideally no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) by the end of the century.

Scientists say countries will miss both of those goals by a wide margin unless drastic steps are taken to begin cutting greenhouse gas emissions next year.

The U.N.'s COP25 climate conference ends December 13th 2019.

====

Clients are reminded:

(i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: info@aparchive.com.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi welcome the Greek Prime Minister to the U.S. Capitol Wednesday morning.

Pelosi congratulated Kyriakos Mitsotakis on his country's economic success. And said the last time the two met was in Spain at the COP 25. The United Nation's annual climate conference was held in Madrid in December.

Pelosi remarked on the long-standing friendship between the two countries saying, "working together, our two nations can promote prosperity globally, security and stability."

The prime minister agreed, noting that the relationship between Greece and the U.S. "has been receiving bipartisan support in Congress."

Mitsotakis' visit comes amid tension in his region with Turkey. He met with President Donald Trump in the oval office Tuesday.

It is his first trip to the United States since taking office in July.

POOL

Washington - 8 January 2020

1. Rep. Nancy Pelosi shakes hands with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House:

"It really is an honor to welcome the prime minister of Greece to the Capitol of the United States. It's personal as well as official for me. Official from the standpoint of the relationship between our two great countries. I congratulate the prime minister on his successes. I last saw him in COP25 (the annual UN climate conference), COP25 in Spain where we were there about the climate crisis. I salute him for his lifetime commitment to protecting the environment and his leadership in the climate crisis. I also congratulate on the economic success of Greece. Working together, our two nations can promote prosperity globally, security and stability. That friendship between our two countries is an old one. From the beginning of our republic, which was inspired by the democracy of Greece. Again, as a Californian, I say personally, I'm honored to welcome the Prime Minister because his father well, he went to Stanford University for one thing, and his father has been honored in our state. So congratulations on your success, your father's honors, his longevity. It's just just a remarkable family. Welcome, Mr. Prime Minister, to the Capitol of the United States."

++CAMERA STAYS ON A TWO-SHOT++

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece Prime Minister:

"Thank you Madam Speaker for your kind words and it's a real pleasure to be here. And it's a pleasure to see you again. We've known each other for for a long time. It's the first time I visit Washington as a newly elected prime minister of Greece. Six months to the day today, I took over as prime minister of the country. I come at a time when our relationship between our two great countries is going from strength to strength. We value this relationship, particularly. It's a relationship with great strategic depth. It's a relationship that has been receiving bipartisan support in Congress. And this is something that makes us particularly happy. And at a, at a time of great turbulence in our part of the world. You can always count on Greece as a credible and reliable partner. We are indeed two old republics. And as Greece will be celebrating in 2021, two hundred years since the Greek War of Independence, which was very much inspired by, by the founding fathers. It will be another great opportunity, Madam Speaker, to reaffirm our commitment to the common values that unite to people. So thank you again very much for this very warm welcome."

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Nancy Pelosi,Speaker of the House:

"Thank you. Mr. Prime Minister. I may say that we're very blessed in our country, as you know, by many Greek Americans in every walk of life in our country. Some of them in the Congress, several states who look forward to welcoming you now. Thank you."

5. Pelosi and Prime Minister turn and walk down hall

LEAD IN:

The president of Finland's Sami Parliament has called on world leaders to work together to combat climate change, following a "disappointing" U.N. climate conference that deferred some of the thorniest issues until next year.

Sami reindeer herders are seeing climate change alter weather patterns and affect their herd's food supply.

STORY-LINE:

Doing as Sami reindeer herders have for hundreds of years, Anne Karhu-Angeli is venturing from her home in Inari, Finland into Lapland's snow-covered forests to feed her herd.

Her husband's family have been herding reindeer for over four centuries. But recently, they've noticed unpredictable changes to once reliable weather patterns.

"We have more different kind of weathers, they are extreme weathers, like now we had minus 28 degrees (Celsius), nice, I can wear my reindeer fur boots and then the next day it's plus one (degrees Celsius). It doesn't make any sense," says Karhu-Angeli.

The arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe.

According to the Finland's Meteorological Institute, mean temperatures in Lapland increased 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past 150 years.

A 20-year study of reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago by Scotland's James Hutton Institute found reindeer got smaller and lighter. Researchers believe climate change is to blame.

Warmer winters mean more rain. When rain falls on the snow, it freezes, locking reindeers' food - such as lichen - beneath the ice. That means the animals are unable to smell the food or dig for it.

As a result, researchers believe the reindeer starve, abort their calves or give birth to much lighter young.

Karhu-Angeli fears the same may happen to their herd.

"Of course, we are worried like now it's plus one (degrees Celsius) or something," she says.

"If the snow melts to the ground and then freezes again, then the lichen will be under ice, but not yet this year. But I know that in Norway, in some places already the lichen is under ice."

Already pressured by mining, forestry and land-use, Sami herding communities fear climate change could mean an end to their traditional lifestyle.

Once a nomadic people, the Sami people are scattered across a region that spans the far north of Sweden, Norway, Finland and the northwestern corner of Russia.

Until the 1960s, this indigenous minority were discouraged from reindeer herding, their language and culture suppressed.

Today, of the 70,000 Sami, only about ten percent herd reindeer, making an income from meat, hides and antlers.

Tiina Sanila-Aikio, the president of Finland's Sami Parliament, says Sami herders are already noticing the effects of climate change.

"Our way of life, the using the nature and living from the nature and living with the nature is really, really influenced already," she says.

"And if we are continuing on this way, how it will be in the future? So, arctic indigenous peoples are facing the climate change first, and it's already here.

"Climate change is already here, we can see the changes in the nature, the climate."

This month's U.N. climate talks in Madrid ended with a slim compromise that sparked widespread disappointment.

Major polluters resisted calls for ramping up efforts to keep global warming at bay and negotiators postponed debate about rules for international carbon markets for another year.

"You cannot eat the money, you cannot drink the money," says Sanila-Aikio.

So, in the end it's all about the land and water and the use of it in a sustainable way."

Italian researcher Nuccio Mazzullo has spent decades studying Sami reindeer herders.

He says hardened herders are accustomed to adapting to changes in the climate, from warm summers to freezing winters.

But now the changes are too fast, the climate too unpredictable.

"The scale of changes are of a different type, and this has repercussions basically on any of the livelihoods that are being performed in nature outside in the forest, and with it all the people who are practicing, they have to readjust all the schemes and the practices that were already in place. So, the worst, actually, is that you cannot trust anymore what you know," he says.

"We can see that there has been a huge change and the Sami are really struggling in the sense that they would like to keep their own reindeer herding as it is or their own relationship with nature as it is.

"And to keep it as it is already now would be a bonus, compared to what can actually happen if this scale of changes is going to continue like this."

Inari, Finland - 13 December 2019

1. Pan left of frozen lake

2. Various wide shots of reindeer on frozen lake, forest in background

3. Various of Anne Karhu-Angeli, Sami Reindeer Herder, feeding her reindeer

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Anne Karhu-Angeli, Sami Reindeer Herder:

"We have more different kind of weathers, they are extreme weathers, like now we had minus 28 degrees (Celsius), nice, I can wear my reindeer fur boots and then the next day it's plus one (degrees Celsius). It doesn't make any sense. It's too much."

5. Pan right of trees, snow falling

6. Mid of Karhu-Angeli calling her reindeer

7. Various of Karhu-Angeli feeding her reindeer

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Anne Karhu-Angeli, Sami Reindeer Herder:

"Of course, we are worried like now it's plus one (degrees Celsius) or something. If the snow melts to the ground and then freezes again, then the lichen will be under ice, but not yet this year. But I know that in Norway, in some places already the lichen is under ice."

9. Various of river running into Lake Inari

10. Pan left of Sajos Sami cultural and administrative centre building exterior

11. Tilt up of snow-covered tree, Sajos exterior in background

12. Various of art piece hanging in Sami Parliament room

13. Various setup shots of Tiina Sanila-Aikio, President of Finnish Sami Parliament, speaking to woman

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Tiina Sanila-Aikio, President of Finnish Sami Parliament:

"I'm very worried because our way of life, the using the nature and living from the nature and living with the nature is really, really influenced already. And if we are continuing on this way, how it will be in the future? So, arctic indigenous peoples are facing the climate change first, and it's already here. Climate change is already here, we can see the changes in the nature, the climate."

15. Various of picture, showing members of Finnish Sami Parliament wearing traditional Sami clothing

16. SOUNDBITE (English) Tiina Sanila-Aikio, President of Finnish Sami Parliament:

"You cannot eat the money, you cannot drink the money. So, in the end it's all about the land and water and the use of it in a sustainable way."

Rovaniemi, Finland - 14 December 2019

17. Pan left of frozen river

18. Close of tree branches

19. Setup shot of Nuccio Mazzullo, Researcher, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, walking by

20. Cutaway of tree branches

21. SOUNDBITE (English) Nuccio Mazzullo, Researcher, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland:

"The scale of changes are of a different type, and this has repercussions basically on any of the livelihoods that are being performed in nature outside in the forest, and with it all the people who are practicing, they have to readjust all the schemes and the practices that were already in place. So, the worst, actually, is that you cannot trust anymore what you know."

22. Wide of forest

23. Close of tree branches

24. Pull focus of part frozen river

25. SOUNDBITE (English) Nuccio Mazzullo, Researcher, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland:

"All these things have already changed. So, we can see that there has been a huge change and the Sami are really struggling in the sense that they would like to keep their own reindeer herding as it is or their own relationship with nature as it is. And to keep it as it is already now would be a bonus, compared to what can actually happen if this scale of changes is going to continue like this."

Inari, Finland - 13 December 2019

26. Various of Karhu-Angeli feeding her reindeer

27. Wide of reindeer on frozen lake, forest in background

French environmental activists brandished stolen portraits of President Emmanuel Macron at a protest on Sunday near the Eiffel Tower to try to push the government to do more to fight climate change.

The protest is part of a climate movement in which activists have stolen more than 130 portraits of Macron from town halls across France.

They feel the centrist, business-friendly Macron isn't doing enough to reduce France's emissions.

Activists brought the portraits to Sunday's protest - carrying them upside down to show what they consider Macron's hypocrisy - to call for bolder government action at the UN COP25 climate talks currently underway in Madrid.

Spokesperson of the climate group Nonviolent Action (ANV - COP21), Pauline Boyer said the demonstration is aimed at showing “that Emmanuel Macron uses doublespeak, by presenting himself as a climate champion while he is not enforcing a true policy in France that could tackle the environment challenge.”

Activists are angry that France has lagged on its international commitments to increase use of solar and wind energy and reduce emissions.

France remains well behind its European neighbours in its use of renewable energy.

The activists also held the 100 portraits, to mark 100 days until France's municipal elections to replace mayors in town halls across the country.

They want to urge future mayors to take local climate action, and some held a banner reading: "Local elections - D-day minus 100, let’s reveal Macron’s real face.”

Activists are facing trials around France for the thefts, with some acquitted and some hit with fines.

Paris - 8 December 2019

1. Various of people holding portraits of French President Emmanuel Macron upside down, against the backdrop of the Eiffel tower

2. SOUNDBITE (French) Pauline Boyer, Nonviolent Action (ANV - COP21) spokesperson:

"We are here today at Trocadero Square, in front of the Eiffel Tower, which was the symbol of Paris COP 21, with one hundred people holding one hundred portraits of Emmanuel Macron. These portraits have been taken out of town halls, and police forces are constantly searching for these portraits. (We are here) to remind all that France is not respecting Paris' targets (COP21 targets), and to remind people that Emmanuel Macron uses doublespeak, by presenting himself as a climate champion while he is not enforcing a true policy in France that could tackle the environment challenge, and breaking our social rights which has now triggered a general strike movement."

3. Activists holding a banner reading (French) "Local elections - D-day minus 100, let’s reveal Macron’s real face.”

4. Activists holding up portraits of Macron

5. SOUNDBITE (French) Pauline Boyer, Nonviolent Action (ANV - COP21) spokesperson:

"Today, we are also marking one hundred days until the local elections. It's a true lever because 50 to 70 percent of actions, to tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gases, are taking place locally. Future mayors will have to take on this huge responsibility because we need to act now, as we are in a race against time with this climate emergency."

6. Various of activists holding up portraits and chanting (French) "We all take down portraits."

Climate activist Greta Thunberg said on Tuesday that the upcoming COP25 UN climate change conference in Madrid was an opportunity to achieve a better outcome for the environment than previous gatherings.

The Swedish teen was speaking as she arrived Tuesday in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on her way to the Climate Change Conference.

Thunberg told dozens of reporters and activists under bright sunshine on a Lisbon quayside she plans to keep pressing political leaders to make climate change their top priority.

"And everyone has to do everything they can in order to make sure they are on the right side of history, because in order to change everything, we need everyone", she said.

Commenting on travelling by catamaran instead of plane, Thunberg said she felt "a bit seasick" but was "incredibly lucky".

Lisbon - 3 December 2019

1. Climate activist Greta Thunberg arriving in port

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, climate activist:

"Many people say that it doesn't matter, that nothing will come out of the COP25 as all the previous meetings and that may be, and we probably already know the outcome, but that can never be a reason to not try to do everything you can to make sure that this outcome is different."

3. Wide of Thunberg

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, climate activist:

"We need to see it from a holistic point of view and we need to do everything we can. We need to work together to make sure that we secure future living conditions for humankind and that we fight for not only ourselves, but for our children and for our grandchildren and for every single living being on earth. And everyone has to do everything they can in order to make sure they are on the right side of history, because in order to change everything, we need everyone."

5. Cutaway

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, climate activist:

"It's impossible to live sustainable today, and that needs to change, it needs become much easier. And I mean, we, we can't require from everyone to rely on people like this to sail you across an ocean. That is absurd. I mean, I am not telling anyone else how to travel or how not to travel. But of course, there are more sustainable alternatives."

7. Cutaway

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, climate activist:

"A bit, but yeah, I got a bit seasick. But then the rest of the trip, nothing. So I mean. So, yeah, I was very lucky. Incredibly lucky."

9. Wide of Thunberg and others at briefing

On October 7th 2019 Paris members of Extinction Rebellion blocked streets with mass sit-ins as riot police looked on.

In Berlin people blocked the Grosser Stern, a traffic circle in the middle of the German capital's Tiergarten park dominated by the landmark Victory Column, in a protest that started in the early hours.

Members of Extinction Rebellion also set up a camp outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's office ahead of what it called an "international rebellion" starting on October 7th.

Founded in Britain in 2018, the movement, also known as XR, now has chapters in some 50 countries.

***

A wildfire raged out of control along the northern edge of Los Angeles on October 11th, forcing thousands of people from their homes as firefighters battled flames from the air and on the ground.

Police Chief Michel Moore said mandatory evacuations encompassed about 100,000 people in over 20,000 homes.

Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said the fire had grown to more than 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) and at least 25 homes had been damaged.

A middle-aged man who was near where the fire was burning went into cardiac arrest and died, the chief said, but he did not have details.

The blaze erupted around 9 p.m. Thursday along the northern tier of the San Fernando Valley as powerful Santa Ana winds swept through Southern California. Smoke streamed across the city and out to sea.

Terrazas said there were sustained winds of 20-25 mph (32-40 kph) with gusts over 50 mph (80 kph) and relative humidity levels had fallen as low as 3%.

The fire erupted in Sylmar, the northernmost portion of the valley, and spread westward at a rate of 800 acres (324 hectares) an hour into Granada Hills and Porter Ranch, part of a so-called urban-wildland interface where subdivisions crowd against the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains. The cause wasn't immediately known.

Porter Ranch, an upper middle-class suburb that was the backdrop for the 1982 movie "E.T." is no stranger to evacuations. Four years ago, a blowout at an underground natural gas well operated by Southern California Gas Co. in the neighboring Aliso Canyon storage facility drove 8,000 families from their homes.

Helicopters made repeated water drops as crews in Los Angeles attacked flames in and around homes. Water- and retardant-dropping airplanes joined the battle after daybreak. About 1,000 firefighters were on the lines.

Fire danger is high throughout Southern California after the typically dry summer and early fall, and the notorious Santa Ana winds - linked to the spread of many wildfires - bring a dangerous mix of witheringly low humidity levels and powerful gusts.

***

A spokeswoman for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California says the complex has not been damaged by a nearby wildfire that has grown to more than 970 acres (392 hectares).

The fire erupted before dawn as strong winds hit Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles.

Flames are pushing through sparsely developed hills between suburban tracts. Horses are being evacuated from small ranches.

The brush fire broke out just before dawn Wednesday near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in the Simi Valley area north of Los Angeles.

Red Cross spokesman Tom Horan says people are confused and scared as they arrived at a shelter set up in a community center in the city of Thousand Oaks, some wearing masks.

They registered with shelter staff amid the banging of cots being set up and food and water being carried inside.

Horan says the shelter can accommodate about 380 evacuees during the day and about 180 overnight. Pets must be kept outside in crates.

***

Strong winds fanned new Southern California wildfires on October 31th, burning homes and forcing residents to flee their homes in a repeat of the frightening scenario already faced by tens of thousands across the state.

The latest blazes erupted in the heavily populated inland region east of Los Angeles as strong, seasonal Santa Ana winds continued to blow with gusts of up to 60 mph (96 kph) predicted to last until the evening before they fade away.

A fast-moving fire spread into the northern neighborhoods of the city of San Bernardino, forcing the evacuation of 490 homes - approximately 1,300 people, the San Bernardino County Fire Department said.

Fire Chief Don Trapp said initial assessment showed that six homes and two outbuildings were destroyed or damaged in the 200-acre (80-hectare) fire.

As winds buffeted the state this week, utilities deliberately cut power to more than a million people to prevent high winds from damaging power lines and sparking wildfires.

Southern California Edison said its safety power cuts still affected about 215,000 people by October 30th and warned that outages were under consideration for about 800,000 people.

Pacific Gas & Electric, which has staged three sweeping blackouts this week, restored power to hundreds of thousands of people Wednesday and expected to have it back for the others sometime October 31th.

The days of windstorms are not unusual for the fall season, which has seen vicious gusts propel a series of deadly and destructive California wildfires in recent years.

***

On October 31th authorities in Ventura County ordered evacuations for about 7,500 people in an area that includes roughly 1,800 buildings as the blaze threatened the small, unincorporated rural community of Somis.

Hundreds of firefighters raced to attack the blaze, which initially was fanned by moderate winds and then was fueled by tinder-dry brush in canyons. Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said more than 400 firefighting personnel were on the job. The fire grew in only a few hours to around 7,400 acres - just over 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) - before midnight.

Ventura County Fire Assistant Chief John McNeil estimated that the fire could reach around 12,000 acres before running out of fuel. Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub said a small drone that appeared to be "looking at photography of the fire" interfered with aerial firefighting efforts.

***

Tourists and Venetians have donned high boots and taken to raised walkways to slosh through the high water that has hit much of the lagoon city.

Venice's tide forecast office said the water level peaked at 1.27 metres (about 4 feet 3 inches) on Novembre 12th but warned that an even higher tide was forecast for after nightfall.

The high water invaded cafes and stores.

As a precaution, authorities closed nursery schools.

San Marco Square, more usually thronged with tourists, was largely deserted.

Many hotels keep disposable knee-high plastic boots handy for tourists.

Venetians' wardrobes often include over-the-knee rubber boots.

Bad weather has dogged Italy lately, with near-daily downpours drenching much of the country.

Meteorologists predicted more heavy rain coming in late Tuesday, especially in the northeast, which includes Venice, as well as in Sicily and elsewhere in the south.

***

A picture taken from the International Space Station shows smoke stretching from the edge of Eastern Australia over the Pacific Ocean.

About 60 fires were burning around New South Wales on the morning of November 13th, with 27 uncontained while being battled by more than 1,000 firefighters, the Rural Fire Service said.

A body was found late on November 13th in a scorched forest near the town of Kempsey in northeast New South Wales, police said.

He is suspected to be a 58-year-old man who lived in a nearby shed and had not been seen since Friday when ferocious wildfires across New South Wales killed three other people and destroyed at least 150 homes.

***

Students in Berlin, Germany marched in support of the global climate strike on November 29th, joining 3,000 protests across the world.

Seventeen-year-old protester, Robin Ebelt said "the generation before us messed it up" and that he wanted to live "for another 60 years."

Fridays for Future activist, Quang Paasch said protesters needed to continue to "take to the streets" to defend the Paris Climate Agreement.

The Fridays for Future protests were originally started by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg in 2018 who was outraged by the lack of government action on climate change.

The worldwide student climate marches come a few days before the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP 25, begins on December 2nd in Madrid.

***

World leaders were arriving on December 2nd for the start of a two-week international climate conference in Madrid that seeks to step up efforts to stop global warming.

The UN is warning that the efforts so far are insufficient to overcome the “point of no return” in climate change.

The summit, which moved to the Spanish capital after Chile had to pull out amid anti-government protests, aims to put the finishing touches to the rules governing the 2015 Paris accord.

That involves creating a functioning international emissions-trading system and compensating poor countries for losses they suffer from rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change.

***

Spain's Energy and Environment Minister Teresa Ribera visited an art installation in Madrid on December 4th, which simulates pollution levels of some of the world's biggest cities.

Ribera and the Director of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health at the World Health Organisation, Maria Neira, walked around the "Pollution Pods" created by British artist Michael Pinsky on the sidelines of the COP25 climate change meeting.

Safe perfume blends and fog machines inside the geodesic domes imitate the air quality of some of the world's most polluted cities - London, Beijing, Sao Paulo, New Delhi - as well as one of the most pristine environments on earth, Tautra in Norway.

Ribera said experiencing the simulated environments was "impressive" and helps understand how pollution affects people's health.

***

Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Madrid on December 6th to join thousands of other young people in a march to demand world leaders take real action against climate change.

Ahead of the march, Thunberg joined a sit-in protest at the conference venue in the Spanish capital.

Madrid is hosting a two-week, United Nations-sponsored talks aimed at streamlining the rules on global carbon markets and agreeing on how poor countries should be compensated for destruction largely caused by emissions from rich nations.

The talks come as scientific evidence mounts about disasters that could ensue from further global warming, including a study commissioned by 14 seafaring nations due to be published Friday that predicts that unchecked climate change could devastate fishery industries and coral reef tourism.

That could cause hundreds of billions of dollars in losses by 2050, says the report, adding that limiting global warming would lessen the economic impact for coastal countries, but that they also need to adapt to ocean changes.

The presence in Madrid of Thunberg was expected to shift the attention to demands for greater action by non-governmental organizations and a whole new generation of environment-minded activists.

Past appearances by the 16-year-old have won her plaudits from some leaders - and criticism from others who’ve taken offence at the angry tone of her speeches.

An advocate for carbon-free transportation, Thunberg travelled by train overnight from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, where she arrived earlier this week after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the United States by catamaran.

That became necessary after a sudden change of venue for the COP25 summit following a wave of anti-government protests that hit Chile, the original host.

***

Climate activist Greta Thunberg said on December 6th that calls for real action against climate change were still being ignored by political leaders, despite their continuous praise of the global environmental youth movement she helped create.

The Swedish teenager was in Madrid, where United Nations-sponsored talks on climate change are underway, to join fellow young climate activists, representatives of Latin America's indigenous peoples and thousands of other protesters.

Before marching, Thunberg said at a press conference that she hoped the COP25 summit would lead to "something concrete" and "increasing awareness among people in general".

Surrounded by three other activists from Spain and Uganda, she added: "The climate crisis is still being ignored by those in power."

The 16-year-old was followed by a swarm of cameras and reporters from the very first step she took out of an overnight train from Lisbon.

The advocate of carbon-free transportation arrived in the Portuguese capital earlier this week after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the United States by catamaran.

During the December 2-13 talks, nearly 200 countries are meant to streamline the rules on global carbon markets and agree on how poor countries should be compensated for destruction largely caused by emissions from rich nations.

"We are tired of the praises that you keep giving the activists," she said. "We want you to act."

***

Swedish teen Greta Thunberg joined fellow young climate activists, representatives of Latin America's indigenous peoples, and thousands of other protesters in a climate march on the streets of Madrid on December 6th.

Thunberg was in Madrid, where United Nations-sponsored talks on climate change are underway.

She said that calls for real action against climate change are still being “ignored" by political leaders despite their continuous praise of the global environmental youth movement she helped create.

Amid an overwhelming level of attention from cameras and other protesters she left the march shortly after it began, getting in a red car that she's been using to move around the city.

During the Dec. 2-13 talks, nearly 200 countries are meant to streamline the rules on global carbon markets and agree on how poor countries should be compensated for destruction largely caused by emissions from rich nations.

An official directly involved in the negotiations said that despite a few setbacks, the technical negotiations were progressing, although many issues were being left for ministerial-level meetings in the summit's second and final week.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the discussions, added that a political declaration on greater “ambition" - a buzzword at the summit - was shaping to be “difficult to achieve.”

***

Sweish climate activist Greta Thunberg says she was "very surprised" to be named Time's “person of the year”, despite becoming the figurehead of a global youth movement pressing for faster action climate change.

Leaving a UN climate conference in Madrid, Thunberg told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she wanted to dedicate the award to all young activists.

"I should not be the one to be person of the year, it should be everyone in the Fridays for Future movement because what we have done, we have done together," she told the AP by phone interview.

She is now planning to head home to Sweden for some rest during the holidays.

Thunberg said she was hopeful that the message being pushed by her and other activists - that governments need to drastically increase their efforts to combat climate change - is finally getting through.

***

Marathon international climate talks ended on December 15th with negotiators postponing until next year a key decision on how to regulate global carbon markets.

After two weeks of negotiations in Madrid on tackling global warming, delegates from almost 200 nations passed declarations calling for greater ambition in cutting planet-heating greenhouse gases and in helping poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change.

But despite holding the longest climate talks ever in 25 nearly annual editions they left one of the thorniest issues for the next summit in Glasgow, in a year's time.

Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace Germany said in the meantime he hoped the European Union's 'Green Deal,' which proposes a net-zero emmisions target by 2050, would be implemented to "set a precedence for other economic regions" of the world.

02:57:20

00:00:00

Climate protests, arrests, in NLands, France, Germany

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paris - 7 October 2019

1. Members of Extinction Rebellion with flags walking on bridge

2. Pan from riot police to demonstrators, UPSOUND (French) "We are Extinction Rebellion"

00:11:22

Firefighters battle southern California blaze

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Porter Ranch, California - 11 October 2019

3. Various of firefighters spraying water on flames near homes and helicopter dropping water near homes

00:23:22

New wildfire scorches area north of Los Angeles

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Simi Valley, California - 30 October 2019

4. Medium view of smoke blowing across roadway

5. Fire burning along hillside near buildings

6. Fire burning trees and brush

00:35:22

Wildfire east of Los Angeles destroys homes

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

San Bernardino, California - 31 October 2019

7. Various night views of homes burning

8. Dayside views of smoldering remains of a house

00:47:22

Hundreds battle new Southern California wildfire

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Somis, California - 31 October 2019

9. Firefighters spraying fire on mountainside

10. Fire truck next to burning mountainside

11. Fire amid trees, grass

00:59:22

St Mark's Square in Venice flooded

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Restrictions: Part must credit Gaetano Guzzardi; Part must not obscure logo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Central Venice, Italy - 12 November 2019

12. Wide of San Marco Square flooded

13. Tourists carrying luggage through flood waters

14. Tourist wading through flood waters

15. Various of tourists walking through flooded area

01:15:22

Smoke from Australia fires visible from Space

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NASA

International Space Station - 13 November 2019

16. STILL: smoke from edge of Australia stretches over Pacific Ocean, red dots on picture indicate actively burning fires.

01:20:22

German climate activists rally at Brandenburg Gate

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Berlin - 29 November 2019

17. Various of protesters in front of Brandenburg Gate

01:31:22

Leaders arrive in Madrid as climate summit begins

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Madrid - 2 December 2019

18. New European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arriving

01:37:21

Spanish art installation recreates air pollution

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Madrid - 4 December 2019

19. Spanish Energy and Environment Minister Teresa Ribera (black coat) and Director of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, at the World Health Organization, Maria Neira (with a scarf) entering cell recreating the air pollution in Beijing

20. Ribera and Neira entering cell recreating the air pollution in New Delhi

21. Banner with COP25 logo and slogan (Spanish) "#TiempoDeActuar" ("Time to act")

01:50:03

Thunberg joins sit-in protest at COP25 summit

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Madrid - 6 December 2019

22. Various of Thunberg joining sit-in protest against the lack of government action to tackle climate change

01:57:24

Thunberg calls for 'real action' on climate change

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Madrid - 6 December 2019

23. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist

" The world leaders, the people in power, grasp the urgency of the climate crisis because right now it doesn't seem like they are."

02:10:07

Thousands join Thunberg in Madrid climate march

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Madrid - 6 December 2019

++NIGHT SHOTS++

24. Various top shots of thousands of protesters marching in Madrid near Cibeles Fountain

02:18:07

Thungberg 'very surprised' about Time award

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

25. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist

" I should not be the one to be person of the year, it should be everyone in the Fridays for Future movement because what we have done, we have done together."

02:31:16

Frustration as COP25 ends without carbon deal

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Madrid - 15 December 2019

26. COP25 venue, sign

27. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Kaiser, Greenpeace Germany:

"US President (Donald) Trump and President (Jair) Bolsonaro from Brazil have undermined these negotiations here and if they are going to continue so next year, we need a different answer from strong economies like the European Union, together with China, together with India, to come up with a new narrative of hope for the young people out there."

THUNBERG: MOVEMENT'S SUCCESS IS RAISING AWARENESS

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was named Time's “person of the year” Wednesday, becoming at age 16 the youngest person to whom the US magazine has given the title.

Thunberg emerged as the face of the youth climate movement after she started skipping school once a week to protest outside her country's parliament

In the past year and a half, she has drawn large crowds at international conferences and demonstrations outside Sweden.

Some have welcomed Thunberg's environmental activism, including her speeches challenging world leaders to do more to stop global warming.

But others have criticized the teenager's sometimes combative tone.

"For sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads, Greta Thunberg is TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year,” the media franchise said Wednesday on its website.

Leaving a United Nations climate conference in Madrid where she addressed negotiators on Wednesday, Thunberg told The Associated Press she was “a bit surprised” by Time's recognition, which she dedicated to all young activists.

Thunberg said she was hopeful the message of urgency she and other activists are communicating - that governments need to drastically increase their efforts to combat climate change - is finally getting through.

She said the experience of the past 15 months, going from solo-protester outside the Swedish parliament to addressing world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, had changed her.

She said she felt she was being heard "but it is the people's voices who who are not being heard, they are the ones who need to be heard, it is this people, especially from the global south and indigenous people who need to be heard," Thunberg said in a phone interview.

She plans to head home to Sweden for some rest during the holidays.

Last year’s Time winners included slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; the staff of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where five people were shot to death; Philippine journalist Maria Ressa; and two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist ++OVERLAID BY STILL IN SHOT 2++:

"I think my voice is being heard enough so that I can't complain about it, but it is the people's voices who who are not being heard, they are the ones who need to be heard, it is this people, especially from the global south and indigenous people who need to be heard. They are the ones who will be hit harder or hit hardest by the climate and environmental crisis. They are the ones who need to be heard and also the science needs to be heard. The science needs to be communicated. And that is what I'm trying to do, to use my platform to do."

Madrid - 11 December 2019

++OVERLAYS AUDIO IN SHOT 1++

2. STILL of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses plenary of U.N. climate conference during with a meeting with leading climate scientists at the COP25 summit in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. Thunberg is in Madrid where a global U.N.-sponsored climate change conference is taking place. (AP Photo/Paul White)

++BLACK FRAMES++

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist ++OVERLAID BY STILL IN SHOT 4 ++:

"I think the biggest success this movement has had is to to spread awareness and to be able to move the debate to get in a sense of urgency and

the conversation that is vert needed right now to be able to move forward. So that I think is our biggest success, but also that we have been mobilizing millions of people all around the world."

Madrid - 10 December 2019

++OVERLAYS AUDIO IN SHOT 3++

4. STILL of climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives for a meeting with leading climate scientists at the COP25 summit in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019. Thunberg is in Madrid where a global U.N.-sponsored climate change conference is taking place. (AP Photo/Paul White)

++BLACK FRAMES++

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist ++OVERLAID BY STILL IN SHOT 6++:

"They say they listen and they say they understand but it sure doesn't seem like it. So if they really would listen and understand then I think they need to prove that by translating that into action."

Madrid - 11 December 2019

++OVERLAYS AUDIO IN SHOT 5++

6. STILL of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses plenary of U.N. climate conference during with a meeting with leading climate scientists at the COP25 summit in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. Thunberg is in Madrid where a global U.N.-sponsored climate change conference is taking place. (AP Photo/Paul White)

++BLACK FRAMES++

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist ++OVERLAID BY STILL IN SHOT 8++:

SOUNDBITE (English)

"After the COP I am heading home for Christmas and taking time off which I am looking forward to. And after that, I have no school to return to until August because I have taken a gap year, so I don't know what I will be doing. I will probably keep doing, continue a bit like now traveling around and if I get invitations to come and just try everything I can from my point of view, what's effective."

Madrid - 6 December 2019

++OVERLAYS AUDIO IN SHOT 7++

8. STILL Climate activist Greta Thunberg attends a news conference in Madrid, Friday Dec. 6, 2019. Thunberg arrived in Madrid Friday to join thousands of other young people in a march to demand world leaders take real action against climate change. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was named Time's “person of the year” Wednesday, becoming at age 16 the youngest person to whom the US magazine has given the title.

Thunberg emerged as the face of the youth climate movement after she started skipping school once a week to protest outside her country's parliament

In the past year and a half, she has drawn large crowds at international conferences and demonstrations outside Sweden.

Some have welcomed Thunberg's environmental activism, including her speeches challenging world leaders to do more to stop global warming.

But others have criticized the teenager's sometimes combative tone.

"For sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads, Greta Thunberg is TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year,” the media franchise said Wednesday on its website.

Leaving a United Nations climate conference in Madrid where she addressed negotiators on Wednesday, Thunberg told The Associated Press she was “a bit surprised” by Time's recognition, which she dedicated to all young activists.

Thunberg said she was hopeful the message of urgency she and other activists are communicating - that governments need to drastically increase their efforts to combat climate change - is finally getting through.

She said the experience of the past 15 months, going from solo-protester outside the Swedish parliament to addressing world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, had changed her.

She said she felt she was being heard "but it is the people's voices who who are not being heard, they are the ones who need to be heard, it is this people, especially from the global south and indigenous people who need to be heard," Thunberg said in a phone interview.

She plans to head home to Sweden for some rest during the holidays.

Last year’s Time winners included slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; the staff of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where five people were shot to death; Philippine journalist Maria Ressa; and two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist ++OVERLAID BY STILL IN SHOT 2++:

"I think my voice is being heard enough so that I can't complain about it, but it is the people's voices who who are not being heard, they are the ones who need to be heard, it is this people, especially from the global south and indigenous people who need to be heard. They are the ones who will be hit harder or hit hardest by the climate and environmental crisis. They are the ones who need to be heard and also the science needs to be heard. The science needs to be communicated. And that is what I'm trying to do, to use my platform to do."

Madrid - 11 December 2019

++OVERLAYS AUDIO IN SHOT 1++

2. STILL of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses plenary of U.N. climate conference during with a meeting with leading climate scientists at the COP25 summit in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. Thunberg is in Madrid where a global U.N.-sponsored climate change conference is taking place. (AP Photo/Paul White)

++BLACK FRAMES++

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist ++OVERLAID BY STILL IN SHOT 4 ++:

"I think the biggest success this movement has had is to to spread awareness and to be able to move the debate to get in a sense of urgency and

the conversation that is vert needed right now to be able to move forward. So that I think is our biggest success, but also that we have been mobilizing millions of people all around the world."

Madrid - 10 December 2019

++OVERLAYS AUDIO IN SHOT 3++

4. STILL of climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives for a meeting with leading climate scientists at the COP25 summit in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019. Thunberg is in Madrid where a global U.N.-sponsored climate change conference is taking place. (AP Photo/Paul White)

++BLACK FRAMES++

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist ++OVERLAID BY STILL IN SHOT 6++:

"They say they listen and they say they understand but it sure doesn't seem like it. So if they really would listen and understand then I think they need to prove that by translating that into action."

Madrid - 11 December 2019

++OVERLAYS AUDIO IN SHOT 5++

6. STILL of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses plenary of U.N. climate conference during with a meeting with leading climate scientists at the COP25 summit in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. Thunberg is in Madrid where a global U.N.-sponsored climate change conference is taking place. (AP Photo/Paul White)

++BLACK FRAMES++

Location unknown - 11 December 2019

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist ++OVERLAID BY STILL IN SHOT 8++:

SOUNDBITE (English)

"After the COP I am heading home for Christmas and taking time off which I am looking forward to. And after that, I have no school to return to until August because I have taken a gap year, so I don't know what I will be doing. I will probably keep doing, continue a bit like now traveling around and if I get invitations to come and just try everything I can from my point of view, what's effective."

Madrid - 6 December 2019

++OVERLAYS AUDIO IN SHOT 7++

8. STILL Climate activist Greta Thunberg attends a news conference in Madrid, Friday Dec. 6, 2019. Thunberg arrived in Madrid Friday to join thousands of other young people in a march to demand world leaders take real action against climate change. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

American billionaire and Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg was joined by American actor Harrison Ford to present a report at the UN global climate conference in Madrid analyzing progress made by the US businesses in tackling climate change.

Bloomberg, who launched his campaign less than three weeks ago, was sharing the results of his private push to organize thousands of US cities and businesses to abide by the terms of Paris global climate treaty that the Trump administration is working to abandon.

The Democrat has vowed to rejoin the Paris climate agreement if he's elected as president. He recently stepped down as the U.N.'s special envoy for climate action.

Unlike at many past climate summits, few heads of government are joining the talks in Madrid.

The US has sent a career diplomat, Ambassador Marcia Bernicat, as head of its delegation.

John Kerry, the former Secretary of State under the last Democrat administration, is also attending events on the sidelines of the Madrid conference, and said the absence of any representative from the White House at the talks "speaks for itself."

"None of the 20 nations that are privileged to belong to the G20, the principal emitters of the world - 85 plus per cent of all the emissions - 20 nations and they are all going up on their emissions: China is going up, India is going up, US is going up, Europe is going up," Kerry said.

"Are you kidding me? We pretend we are serious?"

Scientists say emissions worldwide need to start falling sharply from next year if there is to be any hope of achieving the Paris climate accord's goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

Madrid - 10 December 2019

1. Former mayor of New York and US Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg and American actor Harrison Ford arriving

2. Ford getting on stage

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Harrison Ford, actor:

"We know what to do. We know the facts. What we need now is the courage to act. In 2017 my country's federal government demonstrated a lack of courage threatening to pull out of the Paris agreement. And if we don't elect new leadership they're gonna continue to do that."

4. Photographer

5. Bloomberg getting on stage

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Bloomberg, US Democratic presidential contender :

"The reason that I am here in Madrid is really, very simple. I am here because no one from the White House is here."

7. Crowd looking through glass wall into venue

8. Media

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Bloomberg, US Democratic presidential contender :

"So today I ask that regardless of what you hear out of Washington, you should know that the American people support our Paris goals. We continue to work to meet them. We're making encouraging progress. We're looking forward to this November's election and a new president in 2020. We have to have America as part of the solution. And I'm determent to try to make that happen."

10. Bloomberg and UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa

11. America's pledge report held by Bloomberg

12. Various of Espinosa on stage

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Patricia Espinosa, UN climate chief:

"At this time when we know that we are going in the wrong direction, that we are really far from where we need to be, that we, if we continue to do business as we have done until now – we will just not be able to reach the goals of the Paris agreement."

14. Ford leaving

15. Wide of officials holding signs with young activists

16. People taking pictures

17. Various of room

18. Former US Secretary of State John Kerry approaching podium

19. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, former US Secretary of State:

"So here we are in Spain, a year before we go to Glasgow hopefully to raise ambitions, here we are and no country in the world is getting the job done. None of the 20 nations that are privileged to belong to the G20, the principal emitters of the world - 85 plus per cent of all the emissions - 20 nations and they are all going up on their emissions: China is going up, India is going up, US is going up, Europe is going up. Are you kidding me? We pretend we are serious?"

20. Close of conference logo

REAX FROM COP25 TO THUNBERG'S TIME AWARD

Participants in the UN's COP25 climate talks on Wednesday welcomed the decision to name teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg the Time's youngest "person of the year".

Michael Northrop, an observer at COP25 praised Thunberg's work, saying that he hoped the young climate activist could push climate change progress if governments are not willing to.

Meanwhile, Carlotta Martinez, a 21-year-old staff member at COP25 said Thunberg is doing "very great work and it's a work that everybody needs to appreciate."

Thunberg, 16, has become the face of the youth climate movement, drawing large crowds with her appearances at protests and conferences over the past year and a half.

She spent three weeks at sea to cross the Atlantic for the Madrid climate change conference, hoping to draw attention on low-carbon form of transport.

Madrid,  11 December 2019

1. Conference sign reading (Spanish/English) "#Time for Action"

2. Participants walking across conference venue

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlotta Martinez, 21-year-old staff at COP25 who lives in Madrid:

"She's doing a very great work and it's a work that everybody needs to appreciate. And also, I think that if you take into account the age of Greta (Thunberg, teenage climate activist), I think that she is like, she's a crack for me. She's a crack. And I hope that she work. She's (her) work will have a great impact in the future."

4. Logo of conference

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlotta Martinez, 21-year-old staff at COP25 who lives in Madrid:

"She has to have attention, but not like she was a celebrity because she is not a celebrity. She's an activist, a very good activist."

6. Conference booth inside conference venue

7. Posters of activist groups displayed inside conference venue

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Northrop, observer from New York City:

"Well, we're not seeing enough progress at the governmental level, so having citizens stand tall is important. Having a representative of citizens standing tall, having Greta (Thunberg) kind of provoke the reaction of moral necessity and responsibility is critical. And she's doing an amazing job at it. And, you know, everybody needs to listen, the banks, the fossil fuel developers. These are the folks that are taking us across the 2 degree (Celsius climate change) threshold. So we really need them to move. And maybe Greta can get them to move if governments can't."

9. Pacific Pavilion at conference

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Sydney Welter, 23-year-old NGO worker from Columbus, Ohio in the US:

"I'm really glad attention is being brought to the issue of climate change, but I also think it's really important that other marginalized voices are also elevated. So I can't speak to who is most deserving of that, but you definitely need to elevate marginalized voices."

11. Participants passing "Time for action" logo

12. Participants inside conference venue

Brazil can't stop deforestation without the help of rich countries, Brazil's environment minister Ricardo Salles said in Madrid at the UN's two-week climate change conference.

Salles, who declined to set a deforestation target for the coming year, said in an interview with the Associated Presson Saturday that his country was committed to reducing illegal activity, but needs the back-up of developed nations.

"We are willing to do whatever is necessary to do so, but we need that back-up," Salles said. "That back-up was promised many years ago and we're still expecting the rich countries to participate in a proper way. Proportional funds are really are what is going to be necessary for that task."

While participating in the climate change conference known as COP25, Salles is working to shed light on the environmental policies of Jair Bolsonaro's government.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly taken aim at the country's environmental regulator and called for development of the Amazon forest.

Deforestation in the 12 months through July reached the highest annual rate in 11 years, and Bolsonaro accused NGOs, without evidence, of having set blazes to undermine his administration.

Salles said developed nations should help Brazil on the basis of Article 6 in the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 to prevent the effects of climate change.

The article says monetary compensation mechanisms must be created to help developing countries.

Brazil already receives money from wealthy nations, namely Germany and Norway, to fight deforestation in the vast rainforest.

Norway alone has donated 1.2 billion US dollars to Brazil's Amazon Fund since its creation in 2008.

However, both European nations have suspended contributions, citing continued deforestation and that Brazil doesn't want to stop it.

The fund also appears stalled, with local paper O Globo reporting this week that this year's disbursements were the least since 2013 and zero projects were approved, despite the fact that the fund has 2.2 billion Brazilian real (530 million US dollars) available.

Salles in the past has questioned the fund's effectiveness.

He said in the interview that Brazil is negotiating with the two countries to restart the programme.

They exchanged draft documents, and he expects them to meet next week to discuss new terms of the fund.

Brazil now has "an appropriate approach on the problem of deforestation,'' Salles said, pointing to a new emphasis on adopting a bio-economy agenda and the government's effort to boost local economic activity.

"If we don't solve the economic development for more than 20 million Brazilians who live there and people who need to have this sustainable, from both a financial and environmental perspective, they will be easily coopted by illegal activities," Salles said.

"It is a huge effort to attract private sector to participate."

Brazil's annual deforestation report released in November showed a nearly 30% jump from the prior year in the Amazon, which lost an area of 3,769 square miles of forest.

Madrid – 7 December 2019

1. Close of detail of pavilion at COP25 conference reading (English/Spanish) "It's time for action"

2. Brazil's environment minister Ricardo Salles leaving delegation office and talking to aide

3. Close of Brazilian flag at delegation office reading (Portuguese) "Order and Progress"

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ricardo Salles, Brazil's Environment Minister:

"Brazil is committed to reduce the illegal deforestation in the territory, we are willing to do whatever is necessary to do so, but we need that back-up. That back-up was promised many years ago and we're still expecting the rich countries to participate in a proper way. Proportional funds are really what is going to be necessary for that task."

5. Tilt down from Italian pavilion sign to participants talking in conference hall

6. Close of posters of climate activists' groups displayed in conference hall, reading (English) "Act" and "Climate Action Now"

7. Tilt up from sign reading (Spanish) "COP25 Chile. Madrid 2019. United Nations Climate Change Conference" to COP25 logo reading (Spanish) "Time for Action"

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ricardo Salles, Brazil's Environment Minister:

"Brazil is now having an appropriate approach on the problem of deforestation, which is: if we don't solve the economic development for more than 20 million Brazilians who live there and people who need to have this sustainable, and from both financial and environmental perspective – if we are not able to do that, then these people will be easily coopted by illegal activities. So, it is a huge effort to attract private sector to participate."

9. Pan from participants walking to sign on the wall reading (English) "Brazil Climate Action hub"

10. Close of logo of "Brazil Climate Action hub" of Brazilian civil societies and subnational governments

11. Woman listening to speaker at hub event

12. Audience at event inside "Brazil Climate Action hub"

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ricardo Salles, Brazil's Environment Minister:

"We need rich countries to participate with that effort in a significant amount of money, not only for a small proportion, but (an) amount that is proportional to the size of the problem that all developing countries (have), especially those that are based in the Amazon, who have the forest to take care about, and we need to have that sort of support from the rich countries."

14. Salles talking to participants outside delegation office, then walking inside

15. Close of sign of Brazil's delegation office

16. COP25 logos outside entrance conference venue "IFEMA" (Feria de Madrid)

17. Entrance to conference venue with huge display showing COP25 logo reading (Spanish/English) "#TimeForAction"

18. Close of display at entrance to venue showing conference hashtag (English/Spanish) "#TimeForAction" and COP25 logo