[Paris, 30 November to 12 December 2015] Over 40,000 people gathered for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, — a.k.a. the 21st session of the Conference of Parties or COP 21, hoping that the conference will result in a legally binding international agreement on the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Delegates from the big industrialized countries hailed the new agreement’s goal to limit global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels” and “pursue efforts” to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 Celsius.

Representatives from non-developed countries pointed out that that the agreement failed to hold the top polluters accountable. These major polluters include the multinational fossil fuel corporations, the global military industrial complex, and countries like the US, China, European Union, Russia and Japan. The Paris Agreement allows the most notorious polluters to make voluntary commitments to emissions cuts, climate financing, technology transfer, and policy reforms on climate change.

Produced by International League of Peoples’ Struggle