'Kyoto', a Royal Shakespeare Company production, critically explores the 1997 climate treaty negotiations. Despite its praise for energy and humor, the play highlights the failures of the treaty, revealing that while it aimed to unite the world on climate action, notable countries like the US did not ratify it. Critics argue this portrayal of success is misleading; greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise, undermining the treaty's intended impact, thus framing it not as a beacon of hope but a symbol of political inaction against climate change.
The Kyoto protocol was the first really clear example of how politicians can say all the right words on the world stage about tackling climate change, but then fail miserably to deliver real action at home, said Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
The play presents the Kyoto treaty as a world-saving triumph that set binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions, uniting humanity against the scourge of the climate crisis: a beacon of hope, it is claimed.
From this perspective, Kyoto is not so much a beacon as a tea-light flickering in the void.
As material for a West End show, the backroom machinations of an international climate conference sound unpromising. Pedantry, boredom and delegates fighting over the wording of treaty clauses do not sound like the stuff of high drama.
Collection
[
|
...
]