Commenting on developments at the UN climate summit in Paris, Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace said:
“At this point in Copenhagen we were dealing with a 300 page text and a pervasive sense of despair. In Paris we’re down to a slim 21 pages and the atmosphere remains constructive. But that doesn’t guarantee a decent deal. Right now the oil-producing nations and the fossil fuel industry will be plotting how to crash these talks when ministers arrive next week.”
He continued:
“The enemies of a decent deal know they have one week to kill words in the text that commit the world to ‘full decarbonisation’. They know that would set us on a path towards 100% renewables by the middle of the century. Those regressive forces will fight instead for words that call for a ‘low emission transformation’, knowing that such a watered down phrase will do almost nothing to keep fossil fuels in the ground. There is a whole heap of work still to do here in Paris, but as things stand our report card reads: optimistic about the process, less so about the content.”
