Governments may appear to be at centre stage at the COP21, which began in Paris on November 30, but it is not really the elected representatives of the world who are on trial at this summit and beyond. Nor would it be fair to put businesses, big or small, in the dock.
The culprit of potentially runaway climate change is the complex mix of factors that created the ‘global north’—namely those of us who live ‘developed’ lifestyles and can take uninterrupted electricity, rapid mobility, and mass consumption for granted.