Robert Stavins thinks the recent Durban negotiations have altered the way the world is thinking about addressing global warming:
The Durban Platform – by replacing the Berlin Mandate – has opened an important window. It is this. The national delegations from around the world now have a challenging task before them: to identify a new international climate policy architecture that is consistent with the process, pathway, and principles laid out in the Durban Platform, namely to find a way to include all key countries (such as the 20 largest national and regional economies that together account for upwards of 80% of global carbon dioxide emissions) in a structure that brings about meaningful emissions reductions on an appropriate timetable at acceptable cost.
David Bosco is a bit more dismissive. Brad Plumer goes back to basics:
In December, the global climate talks in Durban, South Africa, didn’t provide much optimism on the climate front. The world is still on pace to heat the planet 3.5°C by century’s end. Given what scientists are learning about the link between climate change and natural disasters, as well as about worrisome feedbacks like melting permafrost in the Arctic, that’s a risky prospect. The International Energy Agency expects that global emissions need to peak by 2017, or else we’ll have locked in enough fossil-fuel infrastructure to make a “dangerous” 2-degree Celsius rise in temperatures impossible to avoid. Tick, tick, tick…
The Dish 