Name: BBC News Review: Race to save the planet
Uploaded: 2022-07-29T16:45:12.000Z
Duration: 7 min 44 s
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That's the only option left, says the UN,

Learning English. I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about the story.

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'Countries must reprioritize climate change or the world faces catastrophe.'

That's what the head of the UN has said ahead of COP27,

the climate conference being held in Egypt,

this month. Scientists say government failures to meet carbon targets

will lead to a rise of more than 1.5 degrees.

  will save us from climate disaster, they say.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

which is the annual international climate conference, is being described

first of all, I want you to think of a famous city - London.

The London Eye, the Houses of Parliament.

OK. So, these are important memorable places.

Buildings. Literally, marks on the land - landmarks. Is that what we mean here?

but, no, that's not what we're talking about here.

So, in the headline, 'landmark' is used as an adjective to mean

that something is 'so important that it might cause a dramatic change'.

OK. So, the headline is suggesting that COP27

where an important change is made. Is that right? Yeah. That's right.

And this adjective 'landmark' is often put together with words

So, for example, if we think about when women first got the right to vote,

It was very important for women's rights.

And can we use any other words or vocabulary to describe a similar thing?

Yeah. We could say that something is a 'turning point'

OK. Let's have a look at that one more time.

OK. So, Greta Thunberg, the very famous, young Swedish climate activist

is going to skip the COP27 Climate Conference.

That means she's not going to attend, because she thinks it's an example

of greenwashing. And 'greenwashing' is the word we're looking at.

Well, I know the word 'green', and I know the word 'washing'.

Well, imagine a company that sells something bad for the environment,

with a green label that symbolises being environmentally friendly.

It might have nice pictures of forests on it,

and it has words like organic and natural ingredients

looks like it's really good for the environment. But, actually,

it's just a plastic bottle, and plastic isn't very good.

Exactly. Yeah. This is greenwashing, and it is just a marketing approach

that basically makes it look like an organisation is helping the planet,

and that makes the customer want to buy the product - they want to help the planet

And the headline uses the adjective 'greenwashing'.

It describes the event, in this case, the conference,

So, that is the action of making something look more environmentally

That means when an organisation or a country hosts

or supports a sporting event to try and make themselves look better.

The headline says that the world is off course.

That means 'going in the wrong direction', metaphorically, to reach

those climate targets. And we are looking at the expression

This has got something to do with guns, hasn't it?

Subtitles ListPlay Video

BBC News Review: Race to save the planet

literally

approach

expression

basically