Is It Time to Replace the Climate COPs? New Anthology Sparks Global Debate
Arkbound Foundation, UK-based publishing charity, has recently published a multi-author anthology titled Climate Collapse? —Calls to Action from Around the World. The collection is edited by first-time editor Matthew Azouley and features well-known climate scientist Dr Bill McGuire, as well as veteran activists Brian Tokar, Dr Gail Bradbrook (co-founder of the global Extinction Rebellion movement) and Dr Kate Booth and Tristan Sykes of the global activist platform Just Collapse.
Are The Climate COPs Obsolete?
The book contains many new writers, some of them from the global south, including Kenya, Sudan and Haiti — aligning with Arkbound`s mission to platform underrepresented voices in both the UK-based and global publishing industries. Through this anthology, one of the things that the editor Matthew Azouley attempts to demonstrate is that grassroots perspectives and actions on the climate crisis and the related societal collapse that some scholars argue is already under way, are far more useful than international top-down approaches like the climate COPs (the 2025 COP was COP30 in Brazil).
Matthew contends that the climate COPs are obsolete, but he is open to other perspectives and would love to promote a debate on this issue, partly to help promote the Climate Collapse? book and the wider mission of Arkbound Foundation regarding diversity and inclusion in publishing. For this debate, Arkbound has partnered up with the fast-growing online debate platform VersyTalks: a comprehensive tool for critical thinking, general knowledge and ideas refinement. Versy offers non-profits like Arkbound free promotion in return for co-facilitating energetic respectful online debates, and in a fragmented and polarised world, we definitely need more respectful debate!
The Climate Change Debate Has Never Been More Important
The debate: Are The Climate COPs Obsolete? will be launched during the 3rd week of December, giving you time to order the Climate Collapse? ebook for Christmas, if you feel so inspired.
Are Climate Scientists Losing Faith in the COP Process?
To start off the debate, Matthew would like to raise a few points as regards the ineffectiveness of the climate COP meetings. First, although scientists who are part of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global scientific research body that informs the COPs), are collectively reticent on communicating how bad the climate crisis is, when questioned individually, many prominent climate scientists have expressed that the COPs have become useless, and do not even see value in attending. These include Dr Bill McGuire and Dr James Hansen (ex-NASA).
Why the Paris Agreement Is Failing: Data, Targets, and Global Reality
Second, as the website Climate Action Tracker shows, countries are way off track from meeting the so-called Paris Agreement targets, and even if they were on track, many experts argue that the calculated reductions in warming would not occur, because Paris target scenarios assume a massive scale-up of negative emissions technologies which have not been proven at scale, and which are ecologically destructive. The Paris targets also require unprecedented global cooperation, at a time when the level of armed conflict around the world is at its highest since the end of WWII. So, the Paris framework is arguably useless.
How Fossil-Fuel Lobbyists Undermine Climate COP Negotiations
Third, it has become well-known that the climate COPs are rife with fossil-fuel lobbyists. The recent COP in Brazil was no exception. Quite simply, how can we expect progressive change on the climate, when the main global meetings to decide policy are disproportionately influenced by the biggest climate polluters?
Final Thoughts
There are many more reasons why Matthew believes the climate COPs may no longer serve the urgent needs of our warming world, from structural barriers to political inertia and the growing disconnect between global negotiations and frontline realities. But instead of closing the conversation, this is an invitation to broaden it. If you care about climate justice, global cooperation, or the future of environmental action, join the debate on versytalks.com starting December 13th, 2025. Add your voice, challenge assumptions, and bring friends who believe the climate movement deserves better tools, and bolder ideas.
