Paris (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Jean-Pierre Chambard / flickr.com
“Habemus consensus!” a Huffington Post article reads, summarising the sanguine diplomatic outcome of the COP21 conference in Paris. It might not be as binding as hoped by the hundreds of thousands of people engaging in the climate march; it does, however, signify a much needed paradigm-shift.
While French Foreign minister Laurent Fabius was widely praised for his outstanding skills and engagement as key faciliator of the COP21 agreement, “indaba”, a negotiation technique used to simplify discussions between many parties, seems to have helped bringing the 195 countries to consensus.
The historic agreement doesn’t come a minute too early, Alex Evans, Senior Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) at New York University, would argue. He was involved in facilitating the rather striking Call to Earth – A message from the World’s Astronauts to COP21, a plea for reason recorded at the International Space Station.
Back on earth, in arguing that “if we want a future based on social, economic and environmental justice, we have to organise for it now”, the New Economics Foundation compiled a useful list of six websites all campaigners should know about; assuming that constant learning within the system change community is vital for informed and generous movements.
Businesses are a major part of the transition and organise themselves too into powerful movements, as Nick Molho, Chief Executive of the Aldersgate Group, exemplifies. In his recent article for The Economist, he is urging the UK Government to reconsider some of its “rather incoherent policy decisions in recent weeks” and to re-align its goals in order to help tanslating the international success into ambitious domestic policy. In mid January 2016, the Aldersgate Group and Lloyd’s of London will be holding a joint event to explore the progress made at the climate change summit in Paris and the implications for the business community.
How the arts can help convey the message of climate change to the wider population is sympathetically explored on the Huffington Post website. With that and a re-link to our recent submission to the EAC’s consultation on The Government’s Approach to Sustainable Development, the FDSD team would like to wish its followers pleasant holidays and a happy new year.
Follow the Leaders by Isaac Cordal (CC BY 2.0) Objectif Nantes / flickr.com
