Politicians at COP21 climate talks should take courage after the Paris attacks

History has shown that extreme events can accelerate change in politics - let's hope the climate change talks will be one of those occasions

The official sherpas and their political masters preparing for the global climate change talks in Paris which start today, have their already complicated task beset further by concerns over security, following the appalling attacks in Paris on Friday 13th November.

Beyond questions of security, the attacks are likely to have much broader impacts on the climate change talks, which are a make or break moment in the effort to prevent runaway global warming. Politics and diplomacy have a long track record of being shaped by events, which open or close windows of political possibility. In the UK, the shock of the first world war helped create the political will to pass universal suffrage , while the second world war created a state of mind in the United Kingdom which made a welfare state possible .