“I challenge you to bring to the Summit bold pledges. Innovate, scale up, co-operate and deliver concrete action that will close the emissions gap and put us on track for an ambitious legal agreement.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

In December 2015, world leaders will gather in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21). The conference aim is to secure a legally binding, global climate change agreement with emission reduction commitments from all 196 UN member states. Following the fiasco of the 2009 negotiations in Copenhagen, which failed to achieve a legally binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement is vital. Opinions on the outcomes of the 2014 COP in Lima are mixed. Some are relieved that any agreement at all was reached. Others feel that the outcomes were weak and disappointing. If the Paris negotiations fail, then warming will be set to go beyond 2°C above pre-industrial levels, threatening the stability and prosperity of both current and future generations.

As the world looks to its leaders for a global agreement in 2015, the Oxford Martin School brings together leading academics to examine the key issues underpinning climate change. Looking at both impact and possible solutions, this series of 13 seminars will shed light on the critical factors at work, and will appeal to anyone who is interested in why the Paris 2015 negotiations matter, what they could achieve and understanding the consequences of failure.

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The seminars in this series will also be live webcast