The Cancún meeting looks promising - from a climate realist´s point of view

The latest reports from Cancún are promising:

The potential crisis was provoked by Japan stating earlier this week that it would not sign up to a second period of the Kyoto Protocol.

Other countries, including Russia, Canada and Australia are thought to agree but have yet to say publicly that they will not make further pledges

And there will be a considerably smaller CO2 footprint at this year´s meeting:

Few heads of state are expected to attend this year's talks – in sharp contrast to the summit in Copenhagen. However, Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, and Bolivia's Evo Morales have said they will be there. All were accused by Gordon Brown of "holding the world to ransom" at the Copenhagen talks. They will be joined by the presidents of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil and Guatemala.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/04/cancun-climate-talks-kyoto-latin-america

The German Daily Die Welt also has noted the almost nonexistent intererest for the Cancún meeting:

Das Interesse am Klimaschutz ist deutlich gesunken. Die Konferenz in Cancún wird kaum wahrgenommen. In die Debatte kehrt Pragmatismus ein.

Aus Kopenhagen sandten die deutschen Nachrichtenagenturen täglich bis zu 50 oder 60 Meldungen zum Thema, aus Cancun kann man sie an einer Hand abzählen. Nichts zu melden. „Verschwunden ist die Feierlichkeit, der Hype, die Erwartungen“, klagt eine englische Aktivistin, die für ihr Netzwerk „Global Campaign for Climate Action“ die Verhandlungen beobachtet, „verschwunden auch die Menschenmengen und die Medien. Stattdessen haben wir ein leeres Konferenzzentrum und Minister, die mit wenig Erwartung kommen.“

PS
Let´s hope that the end result of this climate change madnesss will be an increased interest in fighting real pollution and real environmental problems.