The Climate Question

The BBC's flagship climate show

The Climate Question was the BBC World Service's dedicated climate podcast, built to answer the biggest questions about the climate crisis in a way that was accessible, optimistic where the evidence allowed, and rigorous throughout.

End to end, every episode

• 01 Finding and booking guests: Every episode started with identifying the right voice for the question. That meant reading the science, finding the researchers, advocates, or practitioners who could speak to it with authority, and persuading them the show was worth their time.
• 02 Research and briefing: Before any recording, guests were briefed thoroughly so the conversation could go somewhere interesting. That required digging into their work, understanding the evidence, and shaping the questions to draw out the clearest, most useful answers.
• 03 Setting up recordings: Coordinating recordings across time zones, platforms and technical setups, ensuring broadcast-quality audio from guests who were often not in a studio environment.
• 04 Editing the episode: Shaping hours of conversation into a focused, well-paced episode, cutting for clarity and impact while preserving the authenticity of the exchange. Every episode was built to the BBC's broadcast standard.
• 05 Video and social production: Producing video versions of episodes for YouTube and social media, including visual audio formats that made the content accessible beyond the podcast audience. One visual episode reached nearly one million views.
• 06 COP26 and COP27: On the ground in Glasgow and Sharm el-Sheikh, producing special episodes and content from the UN climate summits, reporting from inside the negotiations and from the events around them.

Video

Two episodes from the series, filmed and produced for BBC World Service.

Coverage and reception