the latest headlines: joe biden has promised he would spend tens of billions of dollars to boost opportunities for black, latinx and native american businesses if he wins the election in november. the democratic party's contenderfor the presidency sharply criticised donald trump, accusing him of intentionally stoking the flames of division and racism. the us attorney general has been defending the deployment of federal agents to american cities, saying they're needed to counter violent rioters. in testimony to congress, william barr claimed anti—racism protesters in portland, oregon, are committing "an assault on the government of the united states. " britain's prime minister has suggested there are signs of a second wave of coronavirus in europe, as he defended a 14—day quarantine on travellers from spain. borisjohnson said the government had to take swift action and hinted holiday—makers may face more quarantines.

it is about 2:30am. now on bbc news: global questions. audiences from around the world question their leaders on global issues. hello, and welcome to london for this edition of global questions, with me, zeinab badawi. could we have a cleaner world after covid—19? well, national lockdowns have led to reduced economic activity and affected livelihoods across the world. but despite the pain, this has resulted in lower levels of carbon emissions and better air quality. so, many believe the time is now right for greater action on climate change. that's coronavirus — a better environment for the earth? well, i'm now inside the bbc‘s

headquarters here in central london. and to bring you this edition of global questions, as always, our two panellists and our audience who are going to be asking questions join us via videolink. so, let me tell you who is in the hot seat this week. inger andersson is executive director of the united nations environment programme. before that, she ran the international union for conservation of nature. and she has more than 30 years of experience in sustainable and international development. and lily cole is the british actress, writer and climate activist. her new book, who cares wins, reasons for optimism in ourchanging world, examines different approaches to the environment crisis. welcome to you both and to our audience. you join us from all over the world, and a solitary round of applause from me, and remember you, too, can join the conversation. remember, it's #bbcglobalquestions. right, let's get down to our first question straightaway.

and we are going to just outside cairo in egypt to amira zanoun. amira, fire away. my question is although the proportion of pollution has been decreased during the coronavirus pandemic, but also we witnessed a significant increase in using disposable tools such as face coverings and other things which are used in restaurants and takeaway meals, so how's the government limiting these things and producing affordable and healthy alternatives? lily cole, a lot of people worried about all that plastic that's being used in the personal protection and all the rest of it. in the book that you mentioned, who cares wins, i have a whole chapter where i look at plastic and waste specifically. and i think there are lots of interesting things happening, especially from the technology sector, that suggests that we are finding ways to build plastics in more environmentally—friendly ways, like bioplastics. but also that we're building

waste systems that are more sensible, and there have been some really ambitious policies, maybe inger can speak more to that, from the eu, for example, and different countries around the world, banning certain types of single—use plastics. and i would hope that we don't take a step backwards and we keep moving forward in terms of how we kind of bring together the contradictions of needing single—use, needing hygienic products, but also needing to think about long—term health, notjust short—term health. inger, though, it's a race against time for so many governments trying to tackle covid—i9. they need all that plastic for the coverings and so on. lives are endangered. but it's polluting the oceans. what can we do, and can we do it quickly enough? who says that about 89 million masks will be required every month, sojust think about those numbers. that's plastic masks. then you add the cloth masks that are used by every other person nowadays. so, the issue here is getting

the investments in for the poorer countries so that they can incinerate, and also, frankly, getting plastic out of the supply chain, and here, a big shout—out to africa. africa was the first one stepping in to ban single—use plastics, single—use bags. i live in kenya, right now i'm not in kenya, but kenya, rwanda, 3a countries have banned single—use and more, and you can take lessons from that because it's entirely possible. can ijust ask you, though, of course it's entirely possible, but is it going to happen and quickly enough? well, right now, no, because many countries don't have incineration facilities. many small village hospitals all through the developing world don't even have this. so, we have this open burning where people are breathing in these fumes, it's double, triple, quadruple bad for the soil, for the people, for the oceans, etc. but we need to get there, and that's why investing in circularity, first of all... well, first of all, getting it out of the supply chain to circularity, and obviously three, waste management

and separation. so, entirely possible, but still a question mark i think about whether it will be achieved or not. ok, amira in egypt, i hope that's answered your question. let us now go to brazil, to leon hendrix. your question, please, leon. giving the socioeconomic impact of covid—19, how much will sustainability feature as part of the recovery? will governments be more focused on creating jobs or the environment? right, is it an either—or situation, inger? it is both. this is not an either—or situation, obviously. i think there was a time when people thought that, you know, you could pollute your way to wealth, you could dispose into the environment stuff and become wealthy and then you could clean up later with the wealth that you have. some countries did, and they exported their dirt to other countries. now that's no longer really possible, thankfully, exporting your garbage to other countries.

so, then what we need to do is to invest in green opportunities, and they are very much doable. investing in green opportunities, investing in opportunities and understanding that about half of our gdp is actually dependent on nature, our health, our well—being and happiness, all of that stuff is important. so, maybe also to see that it's no longer just people like myself and lily who say this. at the world economic forum in january, business leaders said that five out of the top ten risks they see to future profits and growth are around nature, so that is what we understand, you have to do both and that is where the opportunities really lie. lily cole, are you worried that climate change agenda is going to be put on the back

burner as people race to try to recover their economies? i'm in a strange limbo between, like, amazing hope, possibility, optimism and nervousness and fear because i think we're in an incredibly pivotal moment where almost anything is possible. the fact that a policy idea like universal basic income i read about in a book about a year ago felt like a radical idea that was being experimented by a few different communities around the world, the fact that spain will potentially adopt that as a whole country is extraordinary. i give that as an example just to say i think there's the potential for political ambition that we haven't seen in the past, and it would be insane, given all the scientific warnings, if we didn't use this moment to mitigate against the much bigger crises that are on the horizon, the environmental climate change and biodiversity crisis,

the water crisis. if we listen to the warnings around the risks of pandemics, we wouldn't have got into this situation, and i agree with inger, it's fundamentally financially unviable to not listen to science and take into consideration risk management. whether that actually happens, and whether the politicians who are in power right now make those choices, i'm not going to pretend i know or be a prophet of, but i'm hopeful that hopefully some sense will come into guiding the decisions that we make now. leon, are you — do you share any optimism on the question you've asked? well, i would certainly hope so. there needs to be a focus on the environment and the economy and i understand that post—covid—19, there will be a lot of people that must go back to work, rebuilding the economy. but for me, i agree with you guys, that it's got to be alongside the environment. all right, thanks

very much indeed. let us go now to the capital of slovakia, bratislava, and to stella. i got that right, didn't i, stella? yes, you did. do you think the pandemic will make countries more likely to adopt the european green deal, notjust in europe, but all around the world? ok, thanks very much indeed, stella, referring there to the european green deal that the eu has brought about to pursue economic growth in a way that is clean and sustainable and also to create jobs, is this kind of idea something which will catch fire in other parts of the world? your response, inger? i think it is and i think it already has. and we have seen the approval of this massive new budget at the european level, which has — about 30% of that goes to climate change. so, in europe, it's a done deal. i think it will then slowly work into trade and consumer

demands and imported manufactured goods, and what you and i buy off the shelf, and what we would want to buy in terms of its footprint, its carbon footprint. so, this idea of investing in clean energy, investing in different types of refurbishing of housing, investing in public transport, investing in greener and better farming, and obviously climate action writ large is huge. before i come to lily, you say that it has got traction in other parts of the world. we've seen for example the french government tie its bailouts to green goals. like, it gave a lot of money to air france and it said, fine, you have to meet these new carbon targets. do you want to see that principle applied in other parts of the world? because we're not necessarily seeing that. in the united states, for instance. look, not every country, and certainly the developing countries have had to do more

modest stimulus packages, but even there — let me take pakistan as an example, right? so, they have this tree—planting programme. what did they do? they repurposed around 100 million into creating green jobs for planting trees. right now, this april and may, new zealand, not a poor country, has also pushed out about 3 billion that includes climate resilience, etc. so, i think it's catching on and there is an understanding that in countries that have a grey economy already, in countries that have dirty manufacturing, that they need to leapfrog, and those that don't, they want to jump right over that polluting age. you're very optimistic, aren't you, inger! let's see if lily cole shares that optimism. has the idea of a green deal got universal appeal in your opinion, lily?

i mean, i think it's super exciting that it's coming this high up into the political agenda. the green new deal has been bandied around for some time with different incarnations of it under different thinkers, whether it's slightly to the left or to the right, and it's a fundamentally simple and important idea. if you're going to rebuild the economy which we need to do if we stay within our climate agreements and try to control the environment for the next generations, then we need to do that in a green way. and i think the fact that that the eu are doing this is super inspiring and encouraging and hopefully will set a precedent for the rest of the world. that said, i know there has been criticism around whether it's ambitious enough. i co—signed a letter the week before that was written by four youth climate activists demanding really ambitious action from eu leaders, and i don't think it would probably meet that level of ambition. but it feels like a really promising, sincerely promising step in the right direction

and hopefully a signal to the rest of the world. let's go back to stella who asked the question to see what she thinks. stella. i hope you'll be right, and i hope that the green deal is going to win. all right, ok, good. she says that with a big smile. so, there we go. let's go to india now and to mania kumar. mania, what do you want to ask our two panellists? so, my question is will the transmission to renewable energy be slowed down or halted because of rock—bottom oil prices and the need to get economies up and running after the covid—19—related shutdowns? lily cole? i think we do have choices right now, and every single one of us has choices to make right now in terms of how this is played out. we know we need to move away from fossil fuels, to move towards renewables, because the science is very clear that we will run

into more and more of these crises if we don't make those transitions. and i think that there are encouraging signs that that movement is possible. both from the kind of political level, but also more importantly from an individual level where you see decentralisation of energy. and there has been movement towards decentralisation in covid generally where people focus more on local economies, on growing their own vegetable patch. and if you think about that when it comes to trying to build local energy cooperatives and take local energy, then we can be proactive players in the move towards renewable. inger, we've seen a reduction in the demand for oil which has made prices plummet and fossil fuels, do you think this will assist in the transition to renewable energy? i was too optimistic so i'm afraid to continue, but, yes, i do, and here is the reason why. look, who invests in these? right now, it's rock bottom, yes. but bp has had to do a massive downward evaluation of their company assets when they look into the future. why is that? because they know that the days

are coming for the end of hydrocarbons. and when we look at institutional investors, for example those that help us get a pension, they are beginning to disinvest in hydrocarbon, in oil and coal. why? because if you're 22 today and you begin to take out a pension scheme, you want to be able to draw that pension when you're 80, and maybe that's not where you will have a profit at that time. so, we are seeing a market shift, about $5 trillion of pension monies have moved out of hydrocarbons. and we have seen, for example, fracking is down by one third, the fracking industry in north america, so there are some movements. now, obviously part of that is to do with what we are seeing in the lack of demand, but another thing is consumer choices and markets' futures, so, yeah, i remain optimistic. you do. i'm going to have to puncture

that optimism a little bit to say that a lot of the people who contacted us on social media say actually, you know, there's not going to be that much of a difference in their opinion. there seems to be more scepticism that, you know, what's gone on, the plummet in carbon emissions we've seen during the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns is going to be permanent. every nation is going in a different direction, so it depends on what nations do, and so i think there's more scepticism, although there seems to be an overall acknowledgement that air travel is going to remain depressed. let's go to our next question now, and it's david scott in new york, new york. david, your question, please. why is climate change so white? and why does it appear that the voices of indigenous people and people of colour are always relegated to the margins?

ok, lily cole, is it all a bit too western—centric? i think it's a really important question, thank you. actually climate change is not white. there have been people for hundreds of years trying to protect their water, their land, indigenous communities and those are not seen as environmental activists, but they have been at the forefront of environmental activism and they're still remaining today. there's a different question there and you can add to that. you could say that the communities first being heavily impacted by climate change are often developing world countries, people of colour, etc, marginalised communities around the world. now, why does climate change appear as a white kind of campaign? it's a slightly different question which i think takes us to the media and maybe to our own biases in society, which covid has been showing up. why do we celebrate white activists, why do we focus

on white activists over and above the voices of many other activists that do exist and have existed? and i think that's an important question to ask. i think the last few months, as we've seen with the different protest movements, are making maybe more awareness of how interconnected these are, intersected with issues of socialjustice, the environment and our history of racial injustice, and so we would hope that that narrative will evolve. inger, david scott asks why is climate change so white? the answer that lily gave is absolutely right. there's a degree of white privilege to being asked these questions, but i also want to say this. in africa, and this is building on lily's question, in africa, climate change is very much a real issue to the folks who live there. and nelson mandela was one of the first, together

with ellenjohnson, who was the president of liberia, the first female president, and others, to actually talk about climate justice. and they founded something called the elders, and together with jimmy carter and others, they focused on climate justice and the issue of environmentaljustice. and there, professor vollard, who as you know is a very well—known african—american scholar, often considered the father of environmental justice, is precisely spot on. this has been his issue that it is those who are most marginalised and are likely to have the least voice who are getting hit the hardest, and that is the thing with climate change. it is also the thing with pollution, and it's also the thing with dirty water and also the thing with etc, etc, so we have to hear all of these voices and ensure that they come through mainstream media. but i will say where i live, climate change, the politicians in kenya are deeply concerned about this, placing this as a high priority because they're seeing locusts and rainfalls, etc, changing

and the circumstances, and they become the victim of other people's emissions and therefore speak out on change. ok, ourfinal question, we go to india and akash choudry. akash. my question is does the way that humans have joined hands around the world to fight the pandemic make you optimistic enough to believe that we are in for a radical change in the way that the political environment will change once the pandemic is over? or will it go back to the way it was before all of this really started? inger, is this really going to bring about change or is it going to be back to business as usual? there will be those who will deny what has happened

and will want to flip back to what it was prior, and there will be others who will see and understand the science behind what has happened and seek to move, lean in and beyond. what i found remarkable about this is that people listened to the science. it wasn't about fake science, it was the science. you need to stay at home, you need to wash your hands. we saw that the three major religions essentially did not celebrate the way that they normally do easter, ramadan and eid, as well as thejewish holy days. and so, there was, you know, an understanding that science was speaking. butjust on climate change, do you think people are going to say, "we've seen cleaner air, we're connecting with nature, wildlife is re—emerging, we want to keep it that way, we want to hang on to the gains." people saw how easily nature forgives us our trespasses.

you give nature half of a break and it will bounce back, airwill clean up. i think that was miraculous to many who thought they would never see the clarity of vision that they saw in india or beijing, etc. i hope that they will take that knowledge with them into the workplaces, into the discussion places, into the voting booth, over the dinner table to have these discussions about essentially flicking that green switch and insisting that the only way we can get sustainable futures for the next generation and the generation thereafter is to invest in a green future. and if we don't, then we can think about covid as a little overture for what is to come because if we think covid was bad, we don't even want to begin to anticipate climate change. so, i hope that this is the way that we will go,

and the majority of people, there will always be those who go the other direction, but the majority of nations and the majority of people will take that turn and go for sustainable and green. lily cole. so, in the introduction to my book, which was written before the crisis, i used this metaphor of how two football teams in the uk, for example arsenal and chelsea, might be completely against each other, their fans might be really antagonistic to each other. and then when england plays another country like france, those same fans willjoin together and stand side—by—side to try and beat the new enemy. it's a metaphor for what is the enemy we need to come together as a global community. and i was talking about it in terms of the climate crisis, which does impact every single human being living on this planet regardless of their situation, and hoping that that might be an enemy that we would band together to work against. and i think covid has been that enemy, and it's been extraordinary to see how the global community and local communities have worked

together and how much kindness, solidarity and cooperation has emerged in response to the crisis. now, whether we take that metaphor and apply it immediately, which would be my hope is questionable, but the reality is that we cannot avoid the crisis. cannot avoid it. the science is very clear. the question is do you want to come together as a global community to try to mitigate the risks now or do we want to wait until later down the line and deal with the crisis at that point, and hopefully at that point we will still be community—spirited and cooperative, but it will be harder to manage it. the very fact that these international agreements exist, that paris was signed, they do show that international cooperation is happening. that's not to say that everything is going in the right direction, there's not enough ambition, certain players that are not acting in the way we would want or hope them to be, but we can pat ourselves on the back and recognise we have built an international framework

that is trying to solve this crisis and work together. lily cole and inger anderson, thanks you, and to my global questioners. that is all for this edition of global questions. i think we have brought you some thoughts on the unexpected positive benefits of the terrible covid crisis for our planet. remember we are the programme that brings you the trend lines behind the headlines. thank you wherever you are watching this programme, and if you want to be part of the programme, submit a question to the panel, you can e—mail us at... until next time, from me, zeinab badawi, and the rest of the global questions team, goodbye.

hello. it looks likejuly is planning to leave us with something to remember it by. although if you are a fan of summer heat, this all may be too little too late. but friday, the last day ofjuly, it is going to be a hot one for many of us. and it's quite a transformation this week from what we had at the start of the week with low pressure and strong winds, rain, high pressure building, and although low pressure will bring a bit more rain back to some of us before the week is done, it's the position of these pressure systems here which will allow the wind to turn around to a south southeasterly for friday, drawing up that heat, lifting those temperatures, it's not out of the question the uk could record its highest temperature of the year so far on friday. we will get to all of that as we go through the forecast. clearly we are not there yet. and for wednesday, it will be a little bit warmer out there. the winds are lighter and many places will be dry, these are starting temperatures.

it will be cooler than this in rural spots of some of us in single figures as the day begins and it's still quite windy in the northern isles, parts of northern scotland, but the wind will ease further during the day and we will lose any outbreaks of rain as it become drier into the afternoon. for many places, it will be dry. best of any sunny spells probably in southern scotland and northern england, quite a bit of cloud around, temperatures a little bit higher. and you notice we do have a weather system that will bring some rain towards northern ireland to end the day, some patchy rain affecting parts of wales and northwest england as well. it mayjust ease for a time and notice some heavier rain overnight pushing into northern ireland and on thursday, that is going to spread north across scotland, we're ahead of it with the clear skies and it will be chilly for some of us as thursday begins. here goes the rain on thursday. clears northern ireland, again quite heavy in places, then pushes across scotland. for england and wales, look at this. a lot of sunshine to come. the wind going around to that south southeasterly

and the temperatures are heading up. it does get hotter on thursday and that heat is more widespread by the time we get to friday, and in northern ireland, it will be close to the weather front here. so, not particularly hot. we will see a bit of rain to end the day. we can't rule out a thundery shower into parts of eastern england as well. and notice how the temperatures come right back down again at the start of the weekend. that is because the system bringing some rain in northern ireland to end friday is a cold front which moves east across the uk for the weekend as it turns much cooler again.

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