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It is not a Happy New Year for Big Oil, as the industry faces another daunting year of low oil prices, which could have a catastrophic impact on the US shale industry, amongst others.

Veteran anti-oil campaigners were gifted an early Christmas present at the end of last week when a Dutch appeal court ruled that four farmers could sue Shell in the Netherlands for compensation caused by oil pollution on their land in Nigeria.

As the British Parliament winds down for the festive Christmas season, the Government has been accused of trying to "bury bad news" and hide a raft of unpopular policies, some of which have a huge impact on its commitments to climate change.

In which we demonstrate that dismissing the climate impact of lifting the crude oil export ban is wrong.

When he concluded his speech at the start of the recent UN climate change summit in Paris, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron said: “Instead of making excuses tomorrow to our children and grandchildren, we should be taking action against climate change today.”

In the end, after two weeks of tortuous and exhausting negotiations in Paris, the UN agreement on climate reached on Saturday has been hailed as “historic, durable and ambitious”.

As the COP21 climate negotiations go down to the wire in Paris tonight, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said the talks have been the most complicated and difficult he has ever been involved in.

It started as just any other morning for one of Paris’ most iconic tourist attractions, the Louvre. Under a cold, clear bright blue sky the snaking queue of tourists waited patiently to get their glimpse at the world’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa.

The question at COP21 in Paris this week boils down to this: Will Ministers make liars of their Heads of State? We'll know in just a few short days.