As the Paris climate summit reaches its climax, all attention is focused on the level of ambition that the final text will reveal. While this is important, it can also be argued that the very intense momentum built up over the past two weeks, and the attention of the media and the public on the issues of climate change like never before, has marked a decisive breakthrough even before the text of the treaty is…
Tag: Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement: A major step forward or ‘worthless words’?
Amid the widespread welcome for the Paris Agreement, what is striking is the lack of consensus on just how significant it all is. James Hansen, former head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and regarded as one of the world’s most eminent climate scientists, went so far as to call it ‘a fraud, a fake, worthless words’ while Cara Augustenborg, chair of Friends of the Earth Ireland, said in Paris…