Cancun climate talks opened Monday

Guardian : The annual United Nations climate change conference kicked off Monday in Cancún, Mexico, and will continue through 10 December. Although a new global climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol does not yet appear to be on the horizon, it is possible the negotiators from 193 countries will make progress on other issues such as adaptation to global warming and stopping deforestation. As the Guardian‘s Michael Jacobs points out, rather than counting on an international agreement as a prerequisite for global action on climate change, individual countries need to make domestic economic commitments that they believe they can meet before signing a treaty. China, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Indonesia are among the countries that have already begun to commit themselves to individual action.