captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, december 12th: a pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet. is adopted at the paris climate change conference. denmark leads the way toward energy independence, with wind power. and, a conversation with a top justice department official about the fight against international terrorism and isis. >> when they crowdsourced terrorism, what they did is they bombarded thousands and thousands of propaganda messages all over the world. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

the citi foundation. supporting innovation and enabling urban progress. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. negotiators from nearly every country in the world unanimously agreed to a landmark agreement today to combat climate change, pledging to reduce their emissions from burning fossil fuels that cause global warming. it's the first-ever climate pact to commit all countries -- industrialized ones like the united states and developing countries like china and india - - to take action. delegates from 196 countries

cheered as the gavel came down to end the two week conference. no delegation objected to the 31-page final agreement, which is set to take effect in 2020. the "paris agreement" aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees celsius, or three and a half degrees fahrenheit, over historic averages. to achieve that, the agreement calls on nations limit their greenhouse gas emissions to amounts the earth can absorb naturally by the second half of this century. and it requires countries to update their targets for reducing emissions by burning less oil, coal, and gas every five years. joining me now from paris to discuss the deal is "wall street journal" reporter matt dalton. the overall picture, the people you talked to today after the gavel went down, how are they feeling about this deal? >> reporter: they're feeling really good. scientists, environmental groups, government officials, reement turned out to be.rprised

there was really not much watering down at the end of the negotiations. in fact, in some ways the agreement might have gotten more rigorous. so everybody is really pleased. >> sreenivasan: last week, when we spoke, we said one of the major hurdles of the the payment scheme. what are the rich countries, the developed countries responsible for? what are the developing countries like india and china responsible for? and you said at the time there was lots of brackets, things to be determined. what happened with that? >> reporter: this is one area where i think there was a little watering down. the developing countries have avoided any kind of legal requirement to pay this00 to developing countries. that was something that was a nt to have to bring thisn't agreement to be ratified by the u.s. senate, where republicans would almost certainly block it. so any kind of legal obligation that would involve a

congressional appropriation to fund these kinds of schemes was pushed aside, largely at the request of the u.s. and a few other developed countries. the developing countries escaped any kind of requirement to fund any of the poorest nations on their own. there was some talk-- the developed countries really want this to have a country like china, which is a wealthy, relatively wealthy developing nation, provide money and provide money as a legal requirement under this agreement, and that was-- that was pushed aside as well. >> sreenivasan:, you know, there are some squishy areas here when you look through the 31 pages. it says they want to reach a carbon peak as soon as, not any specific date. and then there are other clauses that say some time in the second half of the century. again no specific dates. >> reporter: that's a product of what could be considered the fundamental weakness of this agreement, which is that the

actual emissions reductions are not prescribed by the treaty, or the agreement itself. the emissions reductions are set voluntarily by individual governments, according to their own preferences. so this is a problem. it means that it's difficult to kind of prescribe a specific time when emissions might peak, when the economy would become decarbonized. so it's largely a result, to some extent, anyway, a result of the problems the u.s. has getting in agreement through congress because any kind of internationally agreed emissions reduction plan would most certainly have to be approved by the u.s. senate, where it would be defeat displd it also seems there was twengz between the supply side and the demand side, where the treaty seems it talk a lot about our consumption, there seems to be a big counter-force by fossil fuel-producing

nations. >> reporter: the fossil fuel producers, such as sydney arabia, were one of the big opponents, something called decarbonization, the economy will be basically fossil fuel free by the end of the century. obviously, a crick like saudi arabia, one of the world's largest oil producers is going to be wear of signings on to something like this. but saudi arabia did sign on tho 2 this agreement which will certainly lower the world's consumption of oil beyond what it would have been. >> sreenivasan: all right, matthew dalton of the "wall street journal," joining us from the paris climate talks. thanks so much. >> reporter: thank you. >> sreenivasan: as the u.n. climate change summit comes to a close, one european nation stands out for the strides it has taken to convert from fossil fuels to renewable energy

sources like wind and solar power. that country is denmark, which aspires over the next 35 years to become the first nation on earth to run completely on clean energy, including for transportation. in tonight's signature segment, we begin on samso island just west of copenhagen to see how that plan is taking effect. newshour special correspondent lisa desai reports. >> reporter: the island of samso lies nine miles off denmark's mainland. it's mostly a farming community and home to 4,000 residents who are part of a cutting edge experiment. >> good morning! >> good morning! >> reporter: soren hermansen is the man most responsible for putting samso on the map as the world's first island powered 100% by renewable energy. the transformation began in the late 1990s. >> the question would always be, does it cost more than what we have today? or how do finance it? or is it technically difficult? will it change my daily routines and stuff like that?

the smart house is controlled by a computer. >> reporter: as director of the samso energy academy, hermansen hosts visitors from around the world, explaining how samso went from being entirely dependent on imported oil and coal for its electricity to running fully on wind and solar energy. >> so this is a roof integrated solar panel. it's producing about 6,000 kilowatt hours per year, which is the same as we consume in total per year. >> reporter: the main source of power on the island is 21 wind turbines, 11 on shore and 10 offshore. >> so the electricity is all produced from wind turbines today, which was a great big effort, because some of the islanders, they kind of had this image that, wow, maybe the island will flip over, because they're so big. ( laughs ) >> reporter: overall, the island produces more energy than it consumes, and transmits the excess by cable to mainland denmark. samso uses the profit it makes from selling the excess -- about three million dollars last year -- to improve its energy infrastructure. >> some of the critics said a

wind turbine would never pay its own cost in it's lifetime. that's a myth. >> reporter: but most of the island's home heating comes from a different renewable source: biomass, or plant-based energy. and the fuel is locally-grown straw. >> we have four district heating plants and they supply about 75% of all heat. >> reporter: hermansen took us to one of those heating facilities. >> we burn straw in like a big pot and then cook water and send it around to people. >> reporter: transforming samso has cost $80 million over past decade-and-a-half - a mix of private investment and government subsidies. hermansen says the biggest challenge wasn't economic or technical; it was social. >> the farming community had to be convinced they should share their land with wind turbines, and they could be their own owner or cooperative owners with other people. and for house owners, if you change your heating system to

use district heating or biomass or solar panels, then it will be cheaper and better than the traditional oil boiler you had in the house before. i needed to show them the money in a way. >> reporter: show the money to samso residents, like electrician brian kjaer, who decided to place a wind turbine in his own backyard. this is your own personal turbine. >> yes it is. >> reporter: not a lot of people can say they have one in their backyard. kjaer figures the wind turbine saves his family two to three thousand dollars a year on his electric bill. >> everybody is looking here and says, "you're so way ahead in our challenge to cut back on fossil fuels." and for us, it's our everyday life, and we feel it's natural. >> reporter: down the road, farmer jorgen tranberg is also energy self-sufficient. >> i have full up all my good roofs with solar panels, and

this house is full up with straw. >> reporter: he owns solar panels, part of an offshore wind turbine, and another turbine that's right on his property. >> the solar panels, they pay back in eight years, and so why not try? >> reporter: instead of just talk, you did action? >> yes, and i earned money on it! >> reporter: he earns money by selling the power he doesn't use back to the samso utilities. so what are we about to do? >> well, we intend to climb the turbine. >> reporter: we'll warm up once we start climbing. >> that's right. >> reporter: should i go in? >> yeah, go in. >> reporter: before starting up, i put on a safety suit and gloves. it's a 150-foot climb to the top. >> so, one more step. can you reach up here? >> reporter: yeah >> that's better. so you can lift yourself up. >> reporter: with a push of a button, hermansen opens the door to the nacelle, which houses the gearbox and generator. >> you can step up here and you

can have the view. all right? >> reporter: okay! wow, this is really, really something. >> this is a 3,000-horsepower engine. so it's a big engine. >> reporter: samso has become a symbol of what denmark wants for all of its five-and-a-half million people. >> it's first country to build massive offshore wind parks and has an ambitious plan to run 100% on renewable energy by 2050: no oil, coal, or gas for electricity, heat, or even transportation. >> reporter: the plan was set in motion in denmark's capital, copenhagen, 40 years ago -- not because of global warming, but because of the 1973 arab oil embargo. with 99% of its energy then coming from the middle east, denmark decided to pursue energy independence. its thousands of miles of coastline are especially

suitable for harnessing wind power, but one drawback is: the supply is not consistent. >> you've arrived on a day where there is no wind in denmark. >> reporter: torben glar nielsen is executive vice president of energinet, a government-owned company responsible for denmark's energy infrastructure. at the heart of the system is an a sort of energy exchange --id - that links denmark to its neighbors sweden and norway to the north and germany to the south. >> we have inter-connectors to other countries. when this is no wind, for example, we can import, and when there is a lot of wind, we can export. >> reporter: energinet is in negotiations to extend the grid to include the netherlands and the u.k., making the market for renewable energy more reliable and competitive. >> people they can buy electricity where it's cheapest, so that's very good for the consumers. >> reporter: but not so good for traditional power plants. while on average denmark produces 40% of its electricity from wind, there are times when

it produces more than 100%, and that makes the price of electricity so cheap, coal and gas fired plants can't compete. one day in september, power plants across the whole country shut down for 24 hours. >> what they are doing, a lot them, is that they very early they took the step, ¡okay, we have to have to be part of this instead of against this.' so today, for example, the danish company dong, they are building offshore wind parks. so instead just saying, ¡we have to stick to the coal-fired power plants,' they have gone into the new business. >> reporter: beyond developing renewable energy, denmark is pushing conservation too. to discourage gasoline consumption, denmark's tax on new cars is among the highest in the world: 180%. that encourages danes to spend more time on two wheels. in fact, here in copenhagen, one-third of all commutes to

work and school are done on bikes. while electric cars are not as popular here as in other countries, like norway, the netherlands, germany, or the u.s., denmark offers a big financial incentive to buy electric, waiving that 180% new car tax. engineers mads and ann lykke own two. >> it's better technology. it's much more fun, it's quiet it's cleaner. >> and you never lose a race for green lights. >> no. ( laughs ) >> reporter: not only are their cars cleaner, their appliances are all rated a-plus. like a lot of their neighbors, the lykkes have a washing machine, dishwasher, oven, refrigerator, and freezer with maximum energy efficiency. their lamps use l.e.d. bulbs, which use less energy than typical incandescent or fluorescent bulbs. >> it's so efficient that it doesn't get warm. >> reporter: because their house has solar panels too, the family is very conscious of its energy consumption, tracking it all on their computer. that spike? when the coffee maker went on in the morning. while all of this cost them more

up front, the lykkes say it saves them money in the long run, and it's the right thing to do. >> it's only natural. you want to leave a better country for your kids. we also want to do that. >> reporter: denmark's vision of the future includes "smart homes" with computers that run appliances when energy demand is lowest and cheapest, and extending the smart power grid throughout europe, from denmark to spain, to distribute power where it¡s really needed on any given day. back on samso island, soren hermansen is looking ahead. >> we should go further, because we can. we should develop the technologies, because it's necessary, and we have the possibilities, and we should do science and research also to be on the next level of development to help out the rest of the world in this transition to better the climate. >> sreenivasan: for more about how denmark is tackling the challenge of renewable energy production, watch our earlier report from denmark through our public media collaboration wit""

inside energy," visit pbs.org/newshour >> sreenivasan: investigators into the december 2nd terrorist mass shooting in san bernardino, california, searched a lake a few miles from the site for a third day today. following a tip, they are looking for any belongings the husband-and-wife attackers may have dumped there, before law enforcement officers killed them in a shootout. one official at the helm of the u.s government's fight against terrorism is the assistant attorney general for national security, john carlin. carlin oversees 75 criminal cases that have been brought in the past 18 months against alleged supporters of the islamic state in iraq and syria, known as isis or isil. the majority allegedly tried to travel abroad and a quarter are accused of plots on u.s. soil. in an interview earlier this week, carlin laid out the threat that isis represents. >> we're facing a new threat when it comes to terrorism.

the islamic state, what they did is they decided to crowdsource terrorism. and they exploited u.s. technology companies: twitter, facebook, google, others that do so much good, but they exploited them for their terrorist aims. what they did is they bombarded thousands and thousands of propaganda messages all over the world. then, when they had someone on the hook through social media, what they would do is often take them into a private, encrypted direct messaging forum, and you would have a terrorist overseas talking to a kid here in the united states, and further walk them down that path of radical, radicalization. and while their success rate is very small, all it takes is a relatively small number to pose a big problem. >> sreenivasan: you're talking about fighting an idea. you're talking about fighting an idea with all the modern tools and technologies that exist today to spread ideas. how do you stop someone from proselytizing across twitter?

>> we very much need the same folks who had the innovative idea to create these products, to focus on the solution. they don't want their businesses used by terrorism. so we need to work in partnership with them to keep terrorists overseas from targeting our kids. we've brought over 75 criminal cases against terrorists in the u.s. system. in the beginning, they used to mostly be foreign terrorist fighters, those who want to go join this group overseas. we need to be concerned, once those guys get that training overseas, that they don't come back and use it to commit terrorist attacks inside the united states or in western europe. isil started saying, ¡no passport required, no travel required, we call on you to commit attacks, terrorist attacks where you live. kill innocents around where you live. and we've seen people answer that call in australia, in canada, in france, in belgium. here in america, we're not seeing any particular ethnic group or geographic group answer the call.

instead, the trend is almost every case involved social media. over half these cases involve individuals 25 or younger, and most troubling, a third involve kids that are 21 or under. we've never seen that problem here before when it comes to terrorist threats. >> sreenivasan: so how do you stop that? when you're talking about someone who's under 25, they might be listening to twitter and instagram a lot more than their parents. >> that's a very good point, and these corporations that provide these services, and their advertisers, are really good at figuring out who's listening to what, and how to change minds. we need their help to make sure that the terrorists aren't out there using their services to pinpoint individuals. the same way we've done campaigns against sexual predators. because i think a lot of parents out there, you know, they don't necessarily know what their kid is up to when they're down in the basement online, or when they're walking around using

their phones on social media. and it used to be the assessment of the intelligence community that before someone would become a terrorist, they would need to meet someone in the real world, face-to-face, who would walk them down that path. but that assessment's changed, especially with this generation that's used to trusting people online. and we need to adjust accordingly. >> sreenivasan: how do you see encryption as a problem? especially with telecom companies? >> you have the terrorist overseas. once they're in direct contact, they use american-made technology that's pushed out for free and has many good purposes, to directly communicate. and what i'll find, from where we sit, is we'll get a warrant. we go to serve it on the company, and the company says,¡ yes, this is legal process, but we are technically unable to effectuate the court process. we can't tell you what they're saying.

we can't tell you what they're writing to each other. that's a major problem for law enforcement intelligence, because that's been a critical, the ability to do those intercepts has been a critical tool. >> sreenivasan: so is there a concern that, if you ask a company to say, decrypt all conversations, you're also threatening my right to have private speech. and my ability to whisper a secret to you. >> so i think what we need to do is have a balance between protecting our national security, but what we are protecting is our way of life, which includes our civil liberties and our privacy. and we can and have done both. so what they're looking for now in partnership is saying, look, what we're looking for is specific targeted ability to do an intercept when we have a lawful court order. and we're asking for a technical means to be able to effectuate the court order. folks in government don't need to have that solution, we just need the company to be able to do it.

>> sreenivasan: a new united nations report says at least 848 afghan civilians were killed or wounded during the taliban's two week siege this september on the northern afghan city of kunduz. that period of fighting included the mistaken october third u.s. airstrike on a hospital run by doctors without borders. today, the group said the airstrike killed 42 people, including 14 staff members and 24 patients. afghan and international forces ended the taliban occupation of kunduz in mid-october. women in saudi arabia are going to the polls for the first time. about 130,000 saudi women are registered to vote in today's municipal elections across the country. 980 women are also candidates. the 300 local councils are the only offices elected by popular vote in the saudi kingdom. results are expected tomorrow. authorities in southern

california say a fire at a mosque was caused by arson. the fire at the islamic society of coachella valley started around noon yesterday, and was contained within half an hour. no one was hurt. the mosque is about 75 miles from san bernardino, where two islamic extremists shot and killed 14 people at a holiday party on december 2nd. officials say they will investigate the blaze as a potential hate crime. the f.b.i. is participating in the investigation. the u.s. has reached its lowest abortion rate since the government began tracking legal abortion in the 1970s. a report issued yesterday by the centers for disease control prevention found there were 13 abortions for every thousand women in 2012, the latest year data is available. between 1990 and 2010, the abortion rate fell 35%. at the same time, the overall pregnancy rate went down 10%, with teen pregnancies down by half. coming up on tomorrow's program, one american city at the center of the debate over how to treat the homeless. >> being homeless is not a crime in this country. >> we're trying to deal with the

situation in the most humanitarian way that we can. >> sreenivasan: to see more from my conversation with assistant u.s. attorney john carlin about some recent high-profile hacking cases visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. have a good captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

lewis b. and louise hirschfeld cullman. bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the citi foundation. supporting innovation and enabling urban progress. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we are your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

it's a christmas celebration with star chef hubert keller who is going on a special culinary journey to his homeland of alsace. visit the area's famed christmas markets and its top culinary hot spots. meet his family and friends and see the beautiful village where he grew up next on christmas in alsace with chef keller. (music playing) ♪