Until the very last moment, the conference in Cancún teetered on the brink and many feared that the disastrous result of last year’s meeting in Copenhagen would be repeated. But unlike last year’s conference, which started off as “Hopenhagen” and then ended in big disappointment, the negotiators managed to reach an agreement in the Mexican coastal city. The mere fact that an agreement has been reached is one of the most important outcomes of the conference and it underlines...