The oil lobbyist who tried to sink the first big climate deal

The American lawyer, oil lobbyist and master strategist Don
Pearlman is said to have chain-smoked his way through almost
every UN climate gathering from the early 1990s until his death
in 2005.


Some of those who saw Pearlman operate in Kyoto, where the first
legally binding international agreement on climate change was
agreed in 1997, say he created the playbook for stalling climate
talks. The Kyoto protocol was never ratified by the United
States, and Pearlman is now the subject of a major play, Kyoto,
which has just transferred from London to the Lincoln Center in
New York.


As the COP30 climate summit takes place in Brazil, Climate
Question Host Jordan Dunbar has been telling our friends on The
Global Story podcast the true story of the man once nicknamed
"the high priest of the carbon club".


With episodes each weekday, The Global Story is where the world
and America meet. The world is changing. Decisions made in the US
and by the second Trump administration are accelerating that
change. But they are also a symptom of it. With Asma Khalid in
DC, Tristan Redman in London, and the backing of the BBC’s
international newsroom, The Global Story brings clarity to
politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and
disruption.


For The Global Story podcast


Producers: Aron Keller and Cat Farnsworth Executive producer:
James Shield Mix: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins