Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-254) and index.

Creative destruction : the start -- Creative destruction: the pivot -- Creative destruction : the battle -- The thirteenth month -- A mandate in Durban -- The gears engage -- The China card -- The far turn -- Paris -- The road ahead.

"This book is Todd Stern's eyewitness account of the full, charged, seven-year story of how the Paris Agreement came to be, following an arc from Copenhagen, to Durban, to the secret U.S.-China climate deal in 2014, to Paris itself. It illuminates the strategy and tactics, policy, politics and diplomacy that made Paris possible, and it also depicts the pitfalls and challenges overcome, the struggle between different groups of countries, the sometimes shifting alliances, the last-minmute maneuvering and the ultimate historic success"-- Provided by publisher.