The challenge of Copenhagen

192 countries will sit down together next month to set targets to halt global warming. If they fail, an ominous future likely awaits

By David Adam / THE GUARDIAN , LONDON

In fact, next month’s summit may not even be at the end of the beginning.

Green campaigners insist anything is still possible. Kyoto, they point out, was saved from collapse at the 11th hour, while the Bali talks in 2007 were rescued when US opposition wilted in the pressure cooker of the conference chamber.

Perhaps Obama could yet save the day. What truly matters is that at the end of Copenhagen a global deal, if not signed, sealed and delivered, remains on the table.

As the Guardian noted in 1997: “Kyoto has kept the climate change [fight] alive. The only way targets can go from here is up.”