Copenhagen… moved the process forward. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the agreement had almost universal support. “Let’s remember, a year ago nobody thought this sort of agreement was possible.” Among the reasons for disappointment are that it is not a legally binding treaty. But neither was Kyoto in 1997.

The Kyoto accord only became legally binding in 2005, and only then because that was when Russia signed the agreement. The protocol had to be ratified by enough nations to account for at least 55% of greenhouse gas emissions in order to become a valid, binding treaty, and once Russia signed, that threshold was reached. And really  it took from 1992, when the Rio agreement focused attention on the problem; till 2005 for it to become legal and binding. These things take time.

The good news is that this time, unlike Kyoto, every nation is included. For the first time, China, India and the US were participants in a worldwide agreement that deep cuts in global emissions are required to hold the increase in average global temperatures to less than 2 C above the pre-Industrial Revolution level.

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