Paris has been in the news and the thoughts of many across the world because of the events on Friday 13th November 2015 when death and injury blighted the lives of people seeking an enjoyable evening out or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. From November 30 to December 11, 2015 Paris is also the venue of the latest in a long series of meetings organised by the United Nations to discuss Climate Change.
I hope that this may be the moment when politicians from all participating countries come to realise that achieving sustainable development that limits damage to the climate, in particular, and the environment we rely on as a species, in general, is economically and socially necessary. If so, perhaps they will also realise that money is just a tool that Governments use (and of course need to maintain) and that the cost of sustainability is like the cost of security (which should be in their minds as the venue is Paris) and is more than desirable and worth being properly resourced.
Paul Newman
28 November 2015
