Paris Climate Negotiations

During COP-21, while negotiators gathered at the airport Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris, I walked the streets of central Paris to document how the the climate talks were affecting the city. From solar panels and wind turbines on Avenue des Champs-Élysées, to icebergs hacked off the Greenland Ice Sheet in Place du Panthéon, to the projection of more than 500 faces on the National Assembly, COP 21 left its mark on the City of Light. 

On November 30, 2015, climate activists gathered around the statue of Marianne in Place de la République. The day had started out peacefully: more than 10,000 pairs of shoes filled the square to create a silent march. A breezy marionette floated through the crowd, pausing to lay a rose at the makeshift memorial for victims of the month's deadly ISIS attacks. Then, French anarchist groups flooded the square. They used the memorial as an artillery, pelting police with glass votives and flower pots. Clouds of tear gas descended upon the crowd and, when night fell, nearly 200 protesters were hauled away in police vans.