“It is rare in any lifetime to have a chance to change the world”, declared France’s
President François Hollande as the UN climate talks finally closed.
By Paul Brown
PARIS, 12 December, 2015 – When 196 nations agreed a new treaty aimed at preventing dangerous climate change, mass rejoicing broke out, and signs of celebration still fill the bleak halls and corridors where the deal was finally hammered out.
Politicians and some climate change campaigners believe it will alter the course of history, while others fear it may still be a case of “too little, too late”.
But after years of failures and wrangling it was a breakthrough to get a treaty on which the whole world agreed. It was a tense day, because until the last second some delegate, somewhere in the hall, could object, thus destroying the consensus the treaty needed in order to be accepted.