Why Cancun Trumped Copenhagen: Warmer Relations on Rising Temperatures
Why Cancun Trumped Copenhagen
Author: Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements
Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Harvard Project on Climate Agreements
After the modest results of the climate change talks in Copenhagen a year ago, expectations were low for the follow-up negotiations in Cancun this month. Gloom-and-doom predictions dominated.
But a funny thing happened on the way to that much-anticipated failure: During two intense weeks of discussions in the Mexican resort that wrapped up at 3 AM on Dec. 12, the world's governments quietly achieved consensus on a set of substantive steps forward. And equally important, the participants showed encouraging signs of learning to navigate through the unproductive squabbling between developed and developing countries that derailed the Copenhagen talks.
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