The Copenhagen climate game

I think I have worked out the rules of “the Copenhagen climate game” – officially known as the Climate Conference in Copenhagen – in December.

The aim of the game is to appear as pious as possible about climate change while playing down the practical difficulties of cutting carbon emissions. It seems the best way to achieve this objective is to declare ambitious targets on cutting emissions while making them conditional on others acting in a certain way. That makes it possible for each individual player to claim to be doing The Right Thing while blaming others for any failure to reach agreement.

It is hard to think of a more impractical and cynical process.