The COP21 Climate Change Conference in Paris occurred about 2 weeks following a horrific terrorist attack, also in Paris. That attack was perpetrated by people born in France or Belgium, who were French and Belgian citizens, who happened to be of Middle Eastern descent. They successfully staged a large scale attack killing scores of people. The attack caused an extreme state of emergency from Paris to Brussels, and beyond.
The state of emergency continued up to the weeks of the conference. It’s an understandable thing, there will be high level government officials from around the world coming in and out of the conference, and therefore such a conference is a tempting target.
At the same time the state of emergency made it impossible for protesters to be effectively heard. Which just meant the protesters had to become ingenious in order to hold protests. For example, at the place they were to have begun a march, because they weren’t allowed to assemble as people they instead placed hundreds of pairs of shoes to symbolize the protesters who would have been there.
