Copenhagen Curtain Call: Climate Accord a Good Start

Denmark has given us The Little Mermaid, the world's greatest pastry and the most famous literary question of all time.

"To be, or not to be," Hamlet, prince of Denmark, asks in what may be Shakespeare's greatest soliloquy.

The grand theater that played out in Copenhagen this week was unscripted improv that listed at times between tragedy and farce.

"A wild roller coaster ride," as U.N. diplomat Robert Orr put it.

When the final curtain fell on Saturday, though, this much, at least, was clear: the world pledged to act against climate change, adopting the Copenhagen Accord by a lopsided margin of 188-5, with countries like Sudan and Cuba opposed.

"Finally we sealed a deal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates after a sleepless night wandering cavernous halls of summitry on senior errands of state.

On stage was a cast of thousands - delegates, activists, press - but two men in particular vied for the lead.

One, a geologist by training raised in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution, is premier of the most populous country on Earth. The other, an African-American who came of age on the tailwinds of the Civil Rights movement, became a Harvard-educated law professor and president of the United States.

Whatever history brought them together, Barack Obama and Wen Jiabao embellished the story line here, opening, in some sense, a new chapter in global diplomacy. 

It's hard to imagine international cooperation on any truly worldwide issue anymore without Washington and Beijing near the core of the arrangement. That played itself out here this week.

After decades of struggle, months of diplomacy and weeks of hardball talks, the climate negotiations were spurred to the finish in part by Obama and Wen.

"I don't want to mess around with this anymore," a frustrated Obama told his staff Friday night when it was time to get down to brass tacks. "I want to just talk with Premier Wen."

Together the United States and China kick out more than 40 percent of the carbon pollution that is warming the planet. Any climate accord was always going to begin with that fact of industrial life. 

The two countries pledged to cut or mitigate future emissions, then each took one step more.

The United States said it would pitch in for a global fund to help the world's poorest people cope with the ravages of climate change.The fund starts at around $10 billion a year, then ramps up to $100 billion a year by 2020. Our share would be roughly one-fifth of that.

China agreed to enhance the information it shares with the rest of the world about its carbon abatement plans, a key U.S. demand. They've got a story to tell. China is rapidly expanding its use of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources and cleaning up or idling many of its aging fossil fuel plants.

"One action," said Wen, "is more useful than a dozen programs."

Now Denmark has given the world something new: a sound start on global action to turn back climate change. It's not a perfect document. That was not to be. It's a good beginning, though, that puts the world at last on the same page - this time, with a script.