The layered deal struck by the international climate
negotiations closing this past weekend in Durban, South Africa, is
encouraging. Formally known as the 17th Conference of the Parties
(COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) and the seventh Meeting of the Parties (CMP7) to
the Kyoto Protocol, the outcome can be viewed as a nonfinal and
nonbinding step in the right direction because of the new
parameters for negotiation. The significance of Durban may
therefore ultimately be gauged by how much it prevented and how
much it achieved.
To explain, the last-minute deal struck after two full weeks of
talks and two additional all-night overtime sessions realistically
avoided a collapse of the overall UNFCCC climate treaty process
– something that easily could have happened, the effects
of which should not be understated. The major achievement is the
establishment of the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, which
sets out to develop a
