ABSTRACT
The Conferences of Parties (COPs) meetings create global spaces for protesters to target transnational institutions, with the potential for reaching worldwide audiences through global media attention. This chapter analyzes how the police and political authorities governed dissent in Paris during COP21, the modes of resistance climate activists used and the ensuing conflictual interactions between police and protesters. The most distinguishing characteristic of the context of the 2015 COP21 protests in Paris was the state of emergency that had been declared only about two weeks prior to the conference, in response to the terrorist attacks. The attack was generally framed as an event that put France in a state of war, thereby legitimating drastic countermeasures. On Friday December 4, an exhibition called Solutions COP21 opened in the Grand Palais in the center of Paris. This event, sponsored by the French state and supported by COP21, provided space for large companies, such as Renault and Coca-Cola, to showcase their solutions to the climate crisis.
