Overview

Why, after thirty years of international climate negotiations to reduce carbon emissions, has the UN process failed to deliver a survivable outcome? Nick Breeze goes behind the scenes at the UN COPs, from Paris to Dubai, to find out what on Earth is going on. Most people tend to turn away, perhaps understandably, from the key existential issue of the day: climate change or, some would say more accurately, climate collapse. Nick Breeze tells the engaging, very human story of successive COP conferences over the past decade: it is a tale of imperfection, failure even, but not yet defeat. So far, the UN process has achieved almost the exact opposite of what it first set out to achieve at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Nick shows clearly that it is not Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil nor any other climate protesters who are the extremists; the true extremists are the policymakers who consistently undermine faltering efforts to reduce emissions. Repeatedly claiming to be saving us whilst allowing carbon emissions to continue rising, governments have failed their people on climate. Nick shows us how, why and what we can do about it. The public remains largely uninformed about climate change and, for the most part, those who seek to draw attention to the issue are seen as 'crazy'. There remains a terrifying gap between scientific reality and political action. Packed with his own experiences and insights from expert interviewees, Nick's page-turning account is less about the intricacies of the science and more about the mainstream perception of how we are understanding and responding to the problem. AUTHOR: Nick Breeze has been interviewing climate scientists and related experts since setting out in 2009 with a film crew to interview Professor James Lovelock for a proposed documentary with the working title A Hitchhiker's Guide to Gaia. In 2017, he co-founded the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series (CCLS) with Professor Hugh Hunt and Dr Tony Eva in Cambridge, which brings world-renowned experts to Trinity College for live-streamed lectures on a range of climate issues. Prior to engaging with climate change in 2009, Nick was a budding wine journalist. His reporting includes conferences that have attracted Al Gore and former President Obama.

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9781802472059

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"""This is just what we need!"" -- Prof Hugh Hunt, Deputy Director, Centre for Climate Repair, University of Cambridge. 'COPOUT gives a very strong sense of what the stakes are, in the climate struggle... and shows the urgent need for other nimbler ways forward as we finally face up to the existential threat now upon us’  -- Emeritus Professor Rupert Read, author of Why Climate Breakdown Matters and Co-Director of the Climate Majority Project"

'This is just what we need!' -- Professor Hugh Hunt, Director of Centre for Climate Repair at University of Cambridge 'COPOUT gives a very strong sense of what the stakes are, in the climate struggle... and shows the urgent need for other nimbler ways forward as we finally face up to the existential threat now upon us’  -- Emeritus Professor Rupert Read, author of Why Climate Breakdown Matters and Co-Director of the Climate Majority Project ‘COPOUT exposes how global climate negotiations have failed. Culling from hundreds of interviews and conversations with climate negotiators and agitators from around the world, Nick Breeze reveals the clash of interests infecting the United Nation’s annual Conference of the Parties to address climate change. With stories drawn from his attendance at every COP since the historic Paris agreement in 2015 to the convening overseen by the head of an oil conglomerate in Dubai in 2023, Breeze traces how the UN process, despite its glamor and promise, has broken down. COPOUT is required reading for anyone relying on global action by governments to solve the planet’s climate crisis.' -- Dr Alice Hill, former special assistant to President Barack Obama and senior director for resilience policy at the National Security Council 'The climate crisis is the greatest challenge our civilisation has ever had to face up to.  Yet our global political process, set up to develop an appropriate response, has has manifestly failed over the past 30 years.  The UN COP meetings have taken place every year since 1992, attended each yearon average by 4,000 official negotiators from over 195 countries, and also by around 30,000 non-negotiators.  This is the first insider, personal account that lays bare this failure, taking us all the way through from Copenhagen 2009 to Dubai 2023.  It is a remarkably readable account, capturing the mood and the atmosphere at the meetings and giving important interviews with leaders from different communities.  It is a clear account of the continued failure of the political leadership to even grasp the magnitude of the challenge facing us.  This is a must-read for all of us who care about and work for a manageable future for humanity and the ecosystems that we depend on.’  -- Sir David King

Author Information

Nick Breeze has been interviewing climate scientists and related experts since setting out in 2009 with a film crew to interview Professor James Lovelock for a proposed documentary with the working title A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Gaia. In 2017, he co-founded the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series (CCLS), which brings world-renowned experts to the University of Cambridge for livestreamed lectures on a range of climate issues. Nick is a wine journalist, and the UK Ambassador for the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme.

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