On one side, the opening of COP 21 was decided before the official opening time this Sunday, November 29 to give bigger chances to the Climate negotiations. Inside the blue zone, the atmosphere is cozy, very quiet, everything is well organized. Rooms and computers are numerous, services top quality. On the other side, 15 kilometers far from the COP21, the music was not the same: Police sirens and shouting protesters overlapped this Sunday afternoon at the “place de la République” for the first time partly covered by worn shoes. Heavy atmosphere indeed. Two Police cars have embarked young people (about 300) coming there to denounce States immobility regarding climate emergency actions. They denounced some energy companies too, sponsors of the COP21 because “they are at the root of the climatic problems and much less part of the solution.

So the tone is set. Expectations are high at the 21^st conference of Parties. Since Copenhagen summit, in 2009, an important part of civil society doesn’t believe in promises anymore. That’s true that too many UN messages are scandered with a kind of optimism since then and are still in contradiction with the upward curve of Carbon emissions at Planet scale. The challenge now: the worst is coming soon as extreme weather damages will be more frequent than they used to… if nothing is done.

K-minos agency, in partnership with PolarisImage, a New-York-based agency we are working for,  is proposing a dozen of  key players’ interviews over the next ten days. Our project: “see beyond”. “See beyond means: what are we going to do when the agreement will have been signed nearly around mid-December or later on. In other words, through these interviews, we will raise the contradictions linked to this notion of “sustainable development” – a quasi oxymoron and solutions that can be put forward at the COP21… in order to stop consuming  the way we do. Hard stuff.