Sleepless in Warsaw: How a Climate Deal Was Done

The Warsaw conference saw a huddle over Durban language and yet another over compensation for poor countries.  Both in the end produced a document that did not save the planet but offered vulnerable nations a new path for addressing the irrevocable losses associated with climate disasters and keeping countries on a track to the 2015 deal.

"There are many ways to Paris that would be more beautiful and faster," Hedegaard said as the Warsaw talks finally drew to a close.  But, she said, "If you look at what we in the E.U. came here to achieve, all these elements, we have them in the text.  There is no backtracking from Durban."

How did nearly 200 countries spend two weeks and 38 hours to arrive essentially where they began?  The story begins the final Friday of the talks, which was, after the speechifying and posturing and arrival of ministers and more speechifying, when the real work really began.

Sleepless in Warsaw: How a Climate Deal Was Done