Lights in the gloom

Despondency seems to be setting in among observers and commentators. Heaven knows how the delegates themselves are feeling, with their all-night sittings and more to come. You have to get your light relief where you can find it.

So how about looking at Greenpeace's inspired contribution to climate change activism: an animated cartoon figure called Coalfinger. This is a supervillain who, with his sidekick Dr Anthracite, plans to cover the world in coal-fired power stations - a project not a million miles away from the aspirations of some of the most vociferous climate-change deniers. The unlikely Bond-figure is one Graverson Green, who calls on the world to work together to stop dirty coal plants and to fight for clean and renewable energy. I feel there may a sermon illustration lurking there somewhere.

Over the last few years of conferences I have enjoyed the "Fossil of the Day" awards. Yesterday, while the US took both first and third places, Canada (an all too familiar villain) came second. This was for their leaked Cabinet plan to allow oil and gas emissions to rise by 37% above current levels by 2020, despite the public promise of an overall 3% reduction.

Outside the conference there is encouragement among the gloom. Some of the many campaigners excluded thanks to a monumental miscalculation that saw 25,000 passes allocated when there was only ever room for 15,000 people, have made their point nonetheless. Yesterday representatives from Indian Dalit and indigenous communities burned their conference badges in protest at the lack of community participation in the whole UNFCCC process. And while the Prime Minister of Ethiopia saw fit to join forces with some industrialised countries (including France and the UK) in the name of all Africa, the Pan-Africa climate Justice Alliance - a coalition of more than 200 civil society organisations from across Africa - made it very clear, in an "authorised" protest that he most certainly did not speak on their behalf.

A lot can happen in the remaining two days, but I worry that many of us will be feeling increasingly helpless, opening the door wider to the growing movements of climate change denial. What can the church do? A surprisingly unambitious "seven-year plan" for tackling environmental issues launched recently by the Church of England suggested that the church should if necessary "go it alone", although what "it" might be is far from clear. My personal feeling is that we should not be afraid to put our collective weight behind future government initiatives to address climate change, whether or not that government is of our preferred political hue. That would be a challenge indeed.