Year of earthly thoughts but less action on climate change

The environment dominated global conversations this year.

"Climate emergency" was the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year. Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg became Time "person of the year". The 16-year-old is the voice of change at a time when governments are failing to act fast, illustrated most recently by the lack of a breakthrough at the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid.

When they met in Spain's capital earlier this month, officials from some 200 countries deliberated for long hours but could not come up with a consensus on key aspects of the 2015 Paris accord such as the international carbon market mechanism.