Dame Vivienne Westwood is having none of it. As world leaders enter the final hours of the climate talks in Paris, the fashion designer is also in the city, where she’s speaking out about government hypocrisy in the face of the planet’s destruction by climate change. In her new short film, Trouble in Paradise, she pushes for a new law that recognises environmental destruction as a serious crime – the crime of ecocide.

“You know governments don’t want to do anything, but we say – ‘Governments, we don’t accept that you’ve abdicated your responsibility to care for the people, and we demand that you take into consideration this crime. And we want it to be a law,’” Westwood said yesterday.

The film premiered last night, just a short distance from the centre of the global climate talks at activist and media headquarters, Place to B. In Trouble in Paradise, Westwood and husband Andreas Kronthaler play Adam and Eve encountering the fall of humankind. The planet looks doomed, until a judge (also played by Westwood) introduces a law to stop ecocide. Of the production, she said: “Making this film was a chance to use one of my favourite outfits again. This glamorous catsuit is great – I thought that was the best evening dress. And I was very proud to show off my beautiful husband as well.”

“Governments, we don’t accept that you’ve abdicated your responsibility to care for the people, and we demand that you take into consideration this crime” – Vivienne Westwood

“I think it’s really important that the public understand that this is a crime,” Westwood explained about ecocide. “And if our politicians ignore this, the way they ignore everything that they should be taking account of – well, we’re still going to push it into their face that they’re not being responsible. It’s important that it becomes a law – it would be wonderful if it did become a law, wouldn’t it?” she asks.

Watch the film below. For further information on ecocide and the campaign to support it, visit www.endecocide.org and search #EndEcocide. Keep up with Vivienne Westwood’s activism at www.climaterevolution.co.uk