Greenpeace - Précis

Greenpeace says that the world leaders have all the time detract from the issue of climate change. They saw other issues to be of greater importance which shows that world leaders do not want to negotiate this, as Greenpeace calls it, 'substance'. The idiomatic metaphor of 'smoke and mirrors' is used to show that the attention of the world leaders was not on climate change, but the metaphor of the 'substance' shows there need to be action so that actual change is noticeable.
Another idiomatic metaphor is used with the 'paper tiger'. To the outside world leaders act that they care and find this issue of climate change important, but it is made clear that they do not actually care. This is due to the 6-12 months delay of the conference and the decreasing expectations. There is more and more apathy rising amongst politicians and also the public, which is bad for the problems that need to be solved.
Greenpeace also points out that the 'pressure to deliver in Copenhagen' is huge since the progress on climate action has been postponed through several conferences. Now, there needs to be action because the world can't 'wait' longer for the crucial decisions. They use the hyperbole 'worst case scenarios' to underline the importance that something needs to be done.
By using a metaphor, they criticize the EU to not taking enough action.





Climate Policy and Briefings
This year's UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen is absolutely vital to the future of the world's climate. On the brink of runaway climate change, it’s time for world leaders to lead, and set us on the path to a low carbon economy.
It’s pretty simple:  to avoid runaway climate change, the world needs to quit its addiction to coal and stop destroying forests.
Climate conferences come around every year, but this is the big one. At Bali in 2007, governments pledged to nail down an agreement to save the climate by December 2009 in Copenhagen. At Poznan in 2008, they kept on talking about it, but failed to shape a deal that would make the real cuts. 
Meanwhile, temperature increases, global emission rises, and loss of ice at both the Arctic and Antarctic have all overshot scientists’ worst case scenarios.
The extremely slow progress on climate action has increased the pressure to deliver in Copenhagen. 





Success or Failure in Copenhagen
Smoke and mirrors
Once the smoke blows away and the mirrors are removed it becomes obvious that the focus by some world leaders on the process of the climate negotiations is designed to obscure their reluctance to talk about the substance.
The paper tiger of ‘politically binding’ versus ‘legally binding’, the sorrowful acceptance of a 6-12 month delay and the general lowering of expectations are in danger of creating a global wave of apathy amongst politicians and the public and have neatly sidestepped the question of what the world actually needs to avoid disaster on an unimaginable scale.

The crunch issues
The real key to progress in Copenhagen is resolution and agreement on the crunch issues, those key elements that will put the world on a path to staying as far below a 2°C temperature as possible. That is what the science demands and what is required to ensure the survival of the world’s most vulnerable countries and people and, ultimately, all of humanity.




Greenpeace: EU is trying to get away with leaving a tip
Greenpeace and Oxfam International criticize the EU Commission for not being ready to pay Europe’s share of the climate bill.
Quotation from the article: "The EU is trying to get away with leaving a tip rather than paying its share of the bill to protect the planet's climate," Greenpeace campaigner Joris den Blanken said to Reuters.