Global warming

Global warming
Feb 3rd 2009From Economist.com
Global temperatures and sea levels are rising because of a build-up of greenhouse gases brought about by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and other human activities. As a result, a growing number of governments and businesses are becoming more green-minded, while scientists are exploring ways to counteract climate change.
In 1997, rich-world countries convened the Kyoto Climate Change conference to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. But the resulting Kyoto protocol, enacted in 2005, has had little impact because it does not require developing countries to cut their emissions, and America is not a party to it.
Subsequent conferences in Bali in 2007 and Poland in 2008 produced little real progress, although there are signs of a change in American thinking under Barack Obama's presidency. The future of climate negotiations may lie in markets to commoditise both clean air and the right to pollute it.