ABSTRACT
The 15th Conference of Parties (COP-15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was convened in Copenhagen in December 2009, demonstrated the wide gulf between the rhetoric on climate change and political will required to address it with any seriousness, as a truly global challenge. The rhetoric, based on compelling reality, sees climate change as an extraordinary challenge to the very survival of humanity. There is widespread recognition that we, therefore, need an extraordinary response. However, if we were to assess the results of COP-15, they may only be characterised as being ‘under-ordinary’ instead. What accounts for this hiatus?
