Balinese Backsliding

At the last moment, on the theory that half a loaf of nothing is better than none, delegates to the UN's climate summit in Bali agreed to begin two years of negotiations designed to secure new, non-binding agreements on carbon emissions targets. (For those keeping track, the U.S. delegate, Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, is one of the most awful, destructive neo-con hacks in Washington.) It would have been better to fail at Bali, leaving some countries free to pursue serious policies, others — to be held to account later — not. This way, however, U.S. intransigence only encourages conniving by others, a form of moral hazard. In two years' time any conceivable agreement will almost certainly be too late.