welcome to you all. four years ago, climate change barely registered as a voter issue in a british election. this time it's a priority. the same is true of the battle for the democratic presidential nomination in the us. but does voter anxiety translate into government action? climate scientists say three in four countries have inadequate pledges on cutting emissions. among them is india, whose capital has been choking on smog this month. a week from now, governments get another chance to step up at the madrid climate summit. will they take it? you have just come you havejust come back you have just come back from you havejust come back from india. tell us the mood, is the smog concentrating minds ahead of madrid? the smog has lifted to a certain extent, but it is still very toxic and it was pretty serious just a couple of weeks ago.

having said that, i think that this toxic smog is caused to a large extent by crop burning in neighbouring states. and that smoke is what aggregates the situation. it is a normal phenomenon which generally takes place in the month of november. but that said, i think that when it comes to overall, nationwide, mass consciousness about the environment, i think india still has some way to go. what i noticed, very encouragingly, was that schoolchildren were out on the streets demonstrating against parents and politicians because they are angry. they really feel let down by the older generation. and is that translating in any way into a sharpness of attention from the indian government when it gets to madrid? at this point, india has a carbon intensity pledge but it doesn't have a cutting emissions pledge.

this pledge that india made in paris was that from the standards of 2005, india would reduce the emission intensity by 33 to 35% by 2030. i am not sure whether india will make it but india has made significant progress in the area of energy, for instance. one of the major polluters in india has been these coal—fired plants. they are now being gradually replaced by solar energy, because the cost of generating solar energy has come down, which has been a boon for india. therefore india is rapidly catching up. there are still wild violations taking place as a result of a lack of consciousness. that is where, i think, india needs to get its act together. agnes, what about madrid? if the us, as we all know,

is just backing out of the paris agreement, who is stepping up to take leadership? it doesn't sound like india has quite got there yet and, of course, some of the other big nations like china and russia also seem to say, don't blame us, don't expect us to clean up the damage of other developed countries, who is going to take the lead? i was going to say president macron but it is one of them. european leaders, but also canada. there are still leaders who make green issues their priority more and more thanks to the public‘s awareness. it is very important in two weeks‘ time, a lot of the world's national commitments to cut green, greenhouse gases were pegged to the 2020 deadline so it will be crucial to when we have talks hosted in london for a new

set of commitments. i wanted to say, the paris agreement only four years ago, it feels like another century, it was such an achievement and a feat of international cooperation. the spirit has changed. trump, bolsa naro, climate deniers are in power. what is happening is an awareness and realisation in the wider public. we can't rely on the state and administrations to do what they have to do. they should, of course, be part of setting targets and passing laws and showing the way, but every one of us can actually have a massive impact on tackling climate change. and it is very easy to be cynical when you see greta thunburg and the school strikes and i must say, i must admit, i am one of the cynics sometimes.

thinkind, we should be doing this, not children. they should be in school. and actually, that is a good thing. extinction rebellion is a bit dodgy sometimes and leaves a lot of garbage in the streets of paris, but we are forced in our daily lives to be confronted with those issues. that is a good thing. it is down to individual responsibility. i think politicians used to lead the way, but now they are following the public, it is not the other way around. as you say, the labour manifesto has it as one of the first major issues. something is happening. perhaps it is too late. but we have to try. turning to the us, mentioned a couple of times, interesting line coming out of the trump administration now that technological advance will get the job done and that government action is not what is necessary. is that compelling to audiences in the us?

no, but it is a very american approach of, like, going to the moon or "science can fix it, let's come up with a magic bullet." what is taking hold to a degree in the states is the economics behind developing and marketing alternative sorts of energies is gaining momentum. there are hopeful signs in the states because the power of the individual states in some states like california are standing up to the federal government, like california, and posing their own standards on the federal government. the other important thing that you referred to in the introduction is that this is a huge electoral issue in the states and the democrats, unless there is one person who is not convinced, the democrats are basically saying we have to address this immediately

and reverse president trump's withdrawal from the climate pact. the vote in the us next november is going to be quite crucial on this because the us may well change position or trump could be re—elected and then have another four years to water down the us's antipollution laws there. brian, you have been in brussels, it is interesting, as agnes says, that some european governments are making steps on carbonisation with hard deadlines. how is that looking in brussels? it is at the top of the european commission's to do list. the new president of the european commission has set out a target of climate neutrality by 2050. the big problem with that of course is dealing with 28, soon to be 27 countries. a lot of those countries are very

worried about the social impact of this and who is going to pay for it and where the money is going to come from. it is literally trillions of euros. that is what the big debate for example in the european parliament is going to be about. every single bloc in the european parliament with the exception of one of the extreme right blocks is talking about it. it is no longer a green issue, and the biggest issue for them is going to be how are we going to pay for it. there is no longer any argument about whether it should be done or not. it is how fast can we do it. when it comes to madrid, one of the important things, i think they are going to have to face up to, is when they tighten up what happened in paris about carbon trading, because there are so many loopholes in this. that scheme was first introduced in kyoto and it is widely abused basically. china has continued

to build coal—fired power stations since paris 2015, it is still going on. india has its problems as well. that gives a huge let out to people like donald trump, for example saying, "why should i damage steel workers in pennsylvania if the chinese are basically ignoring what is going on?" one point about india and it is this. india is a target of environmentalists because of the size of its population. per capita, emissions out of india is well below the global average. the problem really is of developing countries expected to do a lot

whereas developed countries like the us renege on its paris commitments. we will see this argument continue in madrid and we will possibly return to it. british voters are laughing in the faces of their politicians. literally. a studio audience hooted derisively at conservative leader borisjohnson when he said telling the truth was important. and they gave labour leader jeremy corbyn the same treatment when he claimed his brexit policy was clear. but mocking incredulity aside, what is the mood of this election and where is its momentum? greg, get us started. the mood is people are not paying attention, they are bored, they are turned off, sceptical, cynical, thinking get these politicians away from me and out of my face. i think they are not terribly likely to vote in droves if it is wet and cold, and obviously it will be dark on december12, i think you will see a dampened figurative way, literally, turn out.

people are turned off by the whole thing and huge things are at stake. this vote is really important but the voters are probably tired of people hearing people on tv say how important it is. do you agree? do you see any momentum anywhere? i don't see anybody running away as yet. if anything, the lead that the conservatives are supposed to have at the moment shrinks, i think it will get tight. there's something else that should be emphasised, more than 40% of people are either still undecided or will not tell which way they are going to vote. that is a crucial factor and this is a result of this being an extremely abnormal complicated election. with brexit as an overwhelming issue, it is not really a normal general election. the economy might dominate and other factors could dominate over elections, the environment is a factor, but i still feel that this brexit issue has

complicated matters. for instance, we have a situation where you have a traditional labour voter who is a leaver, which way will he go? then you have a traditional conservative voter who is a remainer, which way will he go? it is a very abnormal election. people will take their time. i don't know what will happen but if it is a wet and cold 12th of december, then perhaps the younger generation will come out rather than the older generation. thatjust might help the remainers. brian, you laugh. well, i remember we were saying the same thing during the 2016 brexit referendum, maybe the regeneration will come out and save the remaining side. but i think there are a couple of interesting things about this. yes, it is the brexit referendum, but a couple of other things have been going on. the laughing, people simply do not

trust what politicians say any more. so for example, bbc's question time programme the other night, you have a labour mp saying "in our manifesto, we are going to raise income tax on people earning over £80,000 and that is a top 5%." that is correct, but a voter in the audience put his hand up and said he earns that amount and he is not in the top 50%. they were all nodding along. the vast majority did not believe it. labour is right factually when they say that, but people don't believe it. why? because politicians have the last few years been telling them don't trust the expert any more. they are now reaping the results of having said that. however, there is one other point about that debate earlier in the week, the tv debate between johnson

and corbyn, prime minister and the leader of the opposition. because politics has been polarised by brexit, it is probably the biggest gap between a labour and conservative leader in british politics for i don't know how many generations. it is huge. you have a very left—wing labour leader promising nationalised broadband, this, that and the other. the opinion polls suggest he is not going to win this election. he won't be in downing street, things could change, but the opinion polls suggest he is quite a bit behind. however, what i think has changed is if you put brexit to one side, which is very difficult in british politics, i think the weather is changing within all of the other issues. because for the first time, people are saying, yes, maybe we should renationalise railways, people have had enough of poor train services

and pay to much for water. the free nationalised broadband has hit a chord with voters there. it won't happen this time but i think that we will see that carried on in future elections. agnes, for the many not the few, this message, is it beginning to get heard alongside boris johnson's oven ready brexit message? i agree with brian, but i wouldn't believe the polls, especially in the uk. it is also a referendum against borisjohnson. just to put labour aside. but even if corbyn might have close to zero chance of winning a majority, the thing is he doesn't need to win a majority.

what he needs is about 270, 280 seats. and then he turns to the welsh or the snp or others and that might make him cross the line. borisjohnson needs a majority, he needs 321 seats. the promlem with labour is not labour. it is not the manifesto, you read it and you go, that is pretty good. whether that can be incremented is another thing. i think a lot of labour voters think it sounds good but will never be done. is britain ready for socialist britain? that is a big question and it is a radical manifesto that labour have produced. but it doesn't help that the fact that jeremy corbyn is sitting on the fence on brexit. it doesn't help that it appears

to have been an unwritten deal between the conservative party and the brexit party. and in between what i discovered in the last few weeks is that jo swinson is not making an impact. the leader of the liberal democrats. therefore, the lib dems who wear polling at over 20% seems to have shrunk to something like 15%. i don't know what that will ultimately be. they seem to represent the remainers. that is why don't trust the polls, a lot of constituents are going to choose their lib dems candids not based onjo swinson, but of their legal candidate. these polls are very misleading because there are very distinct constituencies. we believe that at a point of indecision and up in the air. away

from politics but another big story. politicians like to say a week is a long time in politics but a prince has just proved that an hour is quite long enough to destroy a career in public life. that was the duration, just under, actually, of prince andrew's bbc interview focusing on his friendship with convicted sex offenderjeffrey epstein. the tsunami of outrage that followed forced the queen's second son to announce his withdrawal from royal duties. and other public roles swiftly followed. agnes, your reflections on this. it is a big problem for the royalfamily? does it create an impression of dysfunction and detachment? i am not sure you need to ask a french republican about the british monarchy. 0h, oh, i 0h, ithink oh, i think we do! i think i should remain silent. look, it is britain's biggest contradition.

it is a democracy yet has a monarchy, a monarchy that is not biased, that is the unwritten pact with the head of state. she is the head of state but doesn't have a say. she can be tricked by her prime minister, like borisjohnson, lied to. from abroad, it is very strange. it isa it is a distraction. and the fact that we have a prince, how come we have a prince? to think that he was the british ambassador of trade in the time of brexit. we have people who are too privileged and not bright enough. so now yes, the institution is in chaos, yes it will be banned or banished from the inner circle and prince charles is furious

because he was the core of political activities or the presentation of royal activities to be on him. there will always be scandals like this, as long as the monarchy is around. but brian, widening it out, agnes is having a go at the monarchy, but in a way, these issues are attached to all areas of public life. wherever you get a sense of entitlement or privilege from normal people, you will get issues like this. the me too movement is a result of that. you have powerful, predominantly white male people exerting that sort of privilege. this is going to continue to happen. until people say no, that is enough, we won't do it any more. the problem is that institutions, whether they are corporate

or the monarchy, need to be alive to this, aware to this in the workplace, whether it is in the royal family, or anywhere else, what we saw in that interview that prince andrew did was simply somebody who was completely oblivious to it. as you say, he wasn't terribly smart about the way he conducted the interview and part of that was as a result of an innate privilege which he felt. when you are invited at the end of an interview to say is there anything else you would like to tell me? or to say? and you completely ignore the fact that it might be a good idea to actually say something about the victims of this epstein affair, you deserve everything you are going to get. speaking of opinion polls, it will be interesting to see where the royal family stand in that. either and they will bounce back in ten minutes personally.

we went throught it with the death diana as well. i want to ask you about the question of the me too movement that brianjust mentioned. president trump newjeffrey epstein but disputes he was a close friend and prior to his election as president we had the access hollywood tapes and boasted about groping women. these questions attach globally, don't they? yes, and epstein's friends cross the political aisle. he had a friendship with the clintons as well. i think what was remarkable about the trump election was that he was not hindered at all by those access hollywood comments which was quite striking. it is almost as if the voters backing him reallyjust didn't mind that disparaging attitude toward women. that is the exception.

what you see with epstein shows the power of the press when applied properly. there was a regional reporter in south florida in miami who refused to let the investigation of epstein die, even when the court had closed it. he was able to continue on and was living the high life and it took the press doing itsjob properly to say, wait a minute, how about those victims. the deal they got was wrong. that changed everything and changed prince andrew's life. how does it play in india and how these issues post me too play in india? is it time up for people who behave like this or can they be protected if they have a partisan tribe to protect them or enough money in power?

although india has cut its links in 1947, urban india remains greatly enamoured with the royal family, therefore great television events like royal weddings or any of that thing, attracts massive tv audiences in india. there is a little bit of respect for the royal family. so this incident, whether it is the episode that has unfolded over the years and months and then this television interview that took place last week, this hasn't gone down very well in india, quite obviously. that said, i think people are not jumping to conclusions. what people are saying is that it looks bad, but is it really that bad? i don't think the tv interview has helped at all. does it cause people to pivot back and look at their own powerful privileged people? indeed, there is a bit of reflection. you look at yourself within,

you look at the country within, and you wonder whether this kind of thing is going on in the country itself. obviously, it is a difference in their world. there is no royalfamily there. what i would say is that this story is going to run for a while. there is an interview coming up on panorama shortly and therefore... with one of epstein's accusers. who also accuses prince andrew which he categorically denied. the royal family do differentiate between queen and the rest of the royal family. and there are certain popular members of the family. but one thing this goes down bottom line is that it was a great misjudgement to frequent the company of somebody like epstein. and there we have to leave it. that's it for dateline london for this week — we're back next week at the same time. thank you all. goodbye for now.

good morning, it has been a rather grey and gloomy start to our sunday morning but it is predominantly dry and it will be a quieter theme of weather for many. so if we take a look at why, we have got this frontal system that is moving its way through scotland for much of the night. that still has to clear away but we have this brief ridge of high pressure dominating the story today before the next low waiting in the wings to arrive a little later on. the rain still sitting across the far north and east of scotland and will gradually drift northwards and ease away. elsewhere, we keep cloudy skies for much of the day, early morning hill fog slowly lifting but the cloud thick enough for the odd spot or two of drizzle. the wind direction is from a south

easterly so it is a mild source, noticeably different feel to the weather in comparison to of late, highest values of 9—12d. through this evening we keep that cloud across england and scotland, and down into the south—west we will have a fair amount of rain pushing into south—west england, wales and eventually northern ireland. it will stay mild through the night, 5—9 celsius, maybe double digits, intothe south—west but that frontal system will push its way steadily north and east through monday. first thing monday morning we have rain around, not especially heavy but a nuisance for many, heading off across northern ireland, north—west england, down through the midlands towards the london area. showers following on behind. the best of any drier, sunnier weather is likely to be into the far north of scotland. still mild, 9—13 celsius. not bad really for the time of year. there is another area of low pressure waiting in the wings

and it arrives on tuesday. this has the remnants of what was storm sebastien, a little bit more energy, could bring some heavier rainfora time. that is going to sweep in from the south—west and push north. showers, some of them heavy and thundery, could be a windy day at times, especially down towards the coast and then in terms of the feel of things, it will stay on the mild side, 8—11; celsius. if you are fed up with this rain and want something quieter, drier, fingers crossed that is on its way for the weekend but it will again get colder.

this is bbc news. the headlines... the conservatives will pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or vat when they publish their election manifesto this afternoon. labour pledges to compensate nearly four million women who lost out when their state pension age rose from 60 to 66. voters in hong kong turn out in record numbers to cast their ballots in district council elections. five teenagers have been arrested after a large brawl at a cinema in birmigham last night which saw a number of police officers injured. great britain miss out on reaching the davis cup final, after a heartbreaking semifinal defeat by a rafael nadal—inspired spain in madrid. and coming up on ‘click‘ at 12:30 — will google‘s entry into gaming mean the end of the console?