Mr Todd Stern, the US special envoy on Climate Change, decided to make public certain things he just

realised

I thought of staying away from climate change completely. I thought any sort of engagement with climate change negotiation was nothing but lending my support to a corrupt process. But a few incidents at home just before the ‘epic’ meeting at Copenhagen forced me to say something.

Late yesterday, US president, Barack Obama and the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, issued a joint statement on climate change. The statement was much awaited. It was believed that President Obama on his maiden visit to the region would get the Chinese to change their position on climate change.

It is now more or less clear that the world will not be ready with an ambitious legally binding agreement at Copenhagen, which sets interim targets for industrialized countries or the funds and technology for participation of developing countries. Already the Kyoto Protocol, which sets binding targets for the industrialised countries is being bashed.

Let me be straight: As the clocks ticks to Copenhagen, how low is the world prepared to prostrate to get climate-renegade US on board? Is a bad deal in Copenhagen better than no deal?

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the governor of West Bengal knows that we need to learn to walk the talk. He lives, as he says, in a 84,000 sq feet building – the majestic Raj Bhawan (Governor’s residence) – in a massive 11 hectare plot of land in the heart of Kolkata city.

The leader of the newly elected Democratic Party of Japan Yukio Hatoyama created quite a stir with his bold mid-term target for emission reduction -- 25 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.

There has been a growing interest in the issue of black carbon -- light absorbing carbon particles, also called soot in our world. It was earlier believed that these particles cooled the Earth, now scientists say the impact is the reverse. The particles absorb sunlight and warm up the atmosphere and so the earth. Also, deposits on snow, absorb sunlight and so heat and melt the glaciers.

The latest fuss about the 2°C global temperature target India apparently acceded to at the Major Economies Forum in L’Aquil, Italy, is important to unravel.