Climate talks open with big agenda, small hopes
If the devil is in the details, climate change negotiators are about to enter purgatory. On Monday, some 2,000 delegates from 162 countries and dozens of specialist agencies open a two-week conference, the first to get into the nuts and bolts of a new global warming agreement meant to take effect after 2012. The meeting builds on a landmark accord reached last December on the Indonesian island of Bali which, for the first time, held out the promise that the USA, China and India will join a coordinated effort to control carbon emissions blamed for the unnatural heating of the Earth.