President Trump slams Paris climate accord: “We have massive, just about the top in the world, we have massive energy reserves … Basically, they said don't use it. You can't use it. It makes us uncompetitive with other countries.” pic.twitter.com/ABaV9rHbjj — KCTV5 News (@KCTV5) February 23, 2018 Donald Trump has been speaking out about the … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Paris
Brexit and climate change policy
Guest post by Professor David Campbell, Lancaster University Law School. (First published in The Reporter: The Newsletter of the Society of Legal Scholars, Winter 2016.) An intriguing light is thrown on the implications of Brexit for domestic and transnational policy formulation by research into the way in which the 2°C target, now ‘adopted’ in Art … Continue reading
Trampling over everything
There has been plenty of discussion here already on COP21. Before we collectively start to naturally tail off our commentary on the annual climate jamboree however I wanted to mark something I consider to be one of the most symbolic and underreported COP21 related events. Geoff remarked on November 14th that out of respect for … Continue reading
A Humpty-Dumpty fudge: Ben Pile on Paris
Writing for Spiked magazine, Ben Pile has given his assessment of the Paris pantomime: it was, he says, ‘a humpty-dumpty fudge’ so vague that one of its major outcomes will simply be to give ‘more licence to climate champions than a precisely worded document ever could’. More licence, that is, to keep the whole racket rumbling on in … Continue reading
COP21: A Nobel Prizewinner Speaks
This article was originally published in French at https://theconversation.com/accord-de-paris-encore-un-long-chemin-52338 where, as nearly always at the French edition of their blog, no-one comments except me. Since the Conversation very decently allows free use of its articles, and since the author is a Nobel Prizewinner for Economics, it seemed only reasonable to translate his thoughts and make … Continue reading
Agreement reached: planet saved. Or a COP-out?
In a historic agreement reached at the end of the Paris COP21 talks, the world has literally been saved from the brink of catastrophe. Across the world, negotiators are returning to their countries, waving a piece of paper which bears their names as well as others. Continue reading
The Shape Of Things To Come
It’s Saturday night, Laurent Fabius has brought his green hammer down on proceedings at the climate summit and the Paris Agreement is a done deal – now what will it all mean? Earlier this afternoon, while we were all still waiting for the announcement, the BBC’s Nicholas Owen interviewed Professor Mike Rosenberg of the IESE … Continue reading
Paris pantomime reaches final act
The Paris COP21 farce is now entering its final act. As predicted by Josh, stage 5 has now been reached, with some reports of deadlock between developed and developing nations. The next stage of the corny melodrama will be the long, agonising extension of the deadlines, followed at last by the triumphant announcement that the planet … Continue reading
COP21: a pointless virtue-signalling farce?
The COP21 United Nations Conference on Climate Change starts next Monday, 30 November and runs until 11 December, at a conference centre attached to Le Bourget Airport on the outskirts of Paris. It’s expected that about 40,000 people will attend. The website has a FAQ section that asks the question of how much all this will … Continue reading
Detonating Virtuous Cycles at COP21
How time flies! Winter will be upon us very soon, here in the northern hemisphere. Christmas is coming, the festive lights will be twinkling and as shoppers gather in Britain’s town centres, flocks of street fundraisers from NGOs and charities will be among them, vigorously working the crowds for cash donations. Coincidentally, on the world … Continue reading