ABSTRACT
Hopes were low ahead of the December 2011 annual climate summit in Durban. The 2010 summit, in Cancun, had managed to keep the negotiations afloat, ending with an accord by governments recognising that their goal should remain holding the increase in global average temperature below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, extending their ambition even to 1.5°C if emerging evidence of climate havoc required. The negotiations in Durban aimed to build on that agreement.
