The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) which concluded last Saturday 12th December in Paris succeeded in delivering a universal framework agreement that concretises the direction of the climate change discourse and more importantly affirms the scope of the problem and the directions in which solutions should be sought. Coming after failures such as that which occurred in Copenhagen in 2009, it could be regarded as an important accomplishment.
As is not unusual with these huge global meetings in which national governments and so many others have invested significant political capital (even more so since after the terrorist attack in Paris success was belatedly billed as intended to deliver a historic blow to global terrorism), much official euphoria has emanated since the conclusion of that indaba. But the difficulties that are likely to arise if we do not reverse the present direction of our changing climate are so considerable that we should not allow ourselves to be swayed by what are essentially official claims of victory.
A few weeks ago, this column (UNFCC Paris 2015: the meaning of success. SN 07/10/2015) indicated what the Paris agreement should contain if it is to
