Some positives from the Cancún talks

[BCO]

Cancún's climate conference was largely a diplomatic triumph. No nations promised to up their emissions reduction targets from those pledged in Copenhagen. The compromise text that the delegates applauded was only work in progress, full of pledges to settle differences later – differences like the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, legally binding emissions targets and the role of carbon markets. The firmest commitment was to meet again next year in Durban, South Africa.

And yet behind the scenes, at side events across Cancún, the architecture of a remarkable new low-carbon world was on display - a world with ambition as great in developing nations as in the rich world.

Dozens of nations – rich and poor, forested and industrialised – came to Cancún having put flesh on promises made in Copenhagen, many of which were unilateral and do not depend on a UN agreement at all. If the talks ultimately founder in Durban or later, that momentum might just save the world without the leadership of the UN or the authority of a UN agreement.

http://www.newscientist.com/article...is-dawn-breaks-on-lowcarbon-world.html?page=1

I particularly liked this part:

Brazil, which promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 36 to 39 per cent from business-as-usual by 2020, declared that it was on the verge of eliminating one of its biggest sources of emissions: deforestation in the Amazon. Forest loss is down by three-quarters, from 27,000 square kilometres in 2004 to 6500 in the past year.