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EVENTS
France Bans Climate Protests
Following the terror attacks in Paris the French government made the decision to ban public protests. However, this decision has ultimately silenced the voices of the people who are most in need of being heard at the upcoming climate change conference, the world’s citizens.
With the general public slipping out of the media’s eye, both talks and attention are set to be dominated by the governments and giant corporations, both of whom are undeniably accountable for the continued production of damaging emissions.
At previous conferences it has been the boisterous protesters that have attracted the largest amounts of media coverage, but in Paris this winter due to the restrictions in place and a deflection of attention away from the two week summit, the impact of the protesters, some of whom were set to travel thousands of miles has disappeared.
Therefore, there are calls for the summit to be hosted in an alternative nation, a nation where the security of environmental activists could be guaranteed. France’s president Francois Hollande has stated that this will not be allowed to happen, that he would not let terrorists dictate the world’s agenda, but in some regards by taking this action he is letting the terrorists win.
Climate change has the potential to be even more violent than ISIS and it is important that a meaningful deal is brokered before the earth’s temperature rises anymore, but whilst the threat of terrorism persists at this summit there will be no large protests and no public pressure, consequently the chances of a deal being brokered at the Paris conference will be diminished.
If the public in France can still attend football matches then why aren’t they allowed to attend the most decisive global climate change summit of all time? Hollande says it is because there are not the resources to effectively protect both the public and the officials, so of course he chose to ban the public and protect the officials.
