COP 21 Charades: Spin, Lies and Real Hope in Paris

Abstract

UN Climate talks have become an annual fixture on the global diplomatic calendar since 1995. Some have been praised, others denounced, but the levels of greenhouse gas emissions have risen regardless year-on-year. This essay and eyewitness account argues that the Paris COP 21 talks like its predecessors failed to deliver a meaningful result, judged from either a scientific or social justice point-of-view. However it did reveal the presence of a growing and increasingly sophisticated and powerful climate justice movement that heralds the most hope for a just response to the global climate crisis

Keywords:

• climate change
• UNFCCC
• COP 21
• militarism
• corporate power
• climate justice
• activism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Nick Buxton http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8876-8828

Notes

1 N. Keohan, ‘Report back from Paris—What the new climate deal means and where we go from here’, 15 December 2015, https://www.edf.org/blog/2015/12/15/report-back-paris-what-new-climate-deal-means-and-where-we-go-here

2 M. Levi, ‘Two cheers for the Paris Agreement on Climate Change’, 12 December 2015, http://blogs.cfr.org/levi/2015/12/12/two-cheers-for-the-paris-agreement-on-climate-change/

3 UNFCC, ‘Adoption of the Paris Agreement’, 12 December 2015, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf

4 K. Anderson, ‘10/10 for presentation; 4/10 for content’, 13 December 2015, http://kevinanderson.info/blog/the-paris-agreement-1010-for-presentation-410-for-content-shows-promise/

5 O. Milman, ‘James Hansen, father of climate change awareness calls Paris talks a “fraud”’, Guardian, 12 December 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-change-paris-talks-fraud

6 D. Voskoboynik, ‘The Paris Agreement’, Medium, 17 January 2016, https://medium.com/@danielvoskoboy/the-paris-agreement-and-a-new-year-8671f7cdfce4#.inpahuxjg

7 ‘It Takes Roots, Press release: Call to action: The COP21 Paris Accord failed humanity’, 12 December 2015, http://ittakesroots.org/call-to-action-the-cop21-paris-failed-humanity/

8 ‘India says Paris climate deal won’t affect plans to double coal output’, Reuters, 14 December 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/14/india-says-paris-climate-deal-wont-affect-plans-to-double-coal-output

9 D. Hellier, ‘UK government hands out new fracking licences’, Guardian, 17 December 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/17/fracking-uk-government-hands-out-new-licences

10 For more on carbon trading, see O. Reyes and T. Gilbertson, ‘Carbon trading: how it works and why it fails’, November 2009, http://www.tni.org/tnibook/carbon-trading-how-it-works-and-why-it-fails and on corporate influence on climate talks, TNI/CEO, COP19 Guide to Corporate Lobbying, November 2014, https://www.tni.org/en/publication/cop19-guide-to-corporate-lobbying

11 K. Anderson, ‘The hidden agenda—how veiled techno-utopias shore up the Paris Agreement’, 6 January 2016, http://kevinanderson.info/blog/the-hidden-agenda-how-veiled-techno-utopias-shore-up-the-paris-agreement/

12 A. Ernsting and O. Munnion, ‘Last ditch climate option or wishful thinking—Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage’, Biofuelwatch, November 2015, http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2015/beccs-report/

13 See http://d12.paris/

14 See http://breakfree2016.org/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nick Buxton

Nick Buxton is a freelance communications consultant and climate justice activist who has worked with Transnational Institute and also the Bolivian government at recent UN climate talks. He is the co-editor of the newly published book, The secure and the dispossessed—How the military and corporations are shaping a climate-changed world (Pluto, 2015). http://climatesecurityagenda.org/