Turn up the heat on climate negotiators for 2015 deal

It seems to have become a ritual for United Nations climate negotiations to reach the brink of collapse before an intense, contentious compromise is achieved after the deadline. But the torturous conclusion to this year's talks in Doha - in which nearly 200 countries agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol - has merely set the stage for more dramatic negotiations in 2015, when a new comprehensive agreement must be reached.

The just-concluded deal establishes a bridge between the old climate regime and a new, as-yet-undefined one. The Kyoto Protocol limits some developed countries' greenhouse-gas emissions. But in 2020, Kyoto will be replaced by a new treaty, which will discard the outdated binary distinction between "developed" and "developing" countries.

The decision in Doha reaffirms that any new agreement must bolster efforts to meet the UN target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. The deal also creates a new mechanism to compensate the countries that are suffering the most as a result of climate change.

Moreover, a single negotiation platform has been established, and a 2015 deadline for concluding a new agreement has been set - a much more significant accomplishment than most commentators or governments have recognised.

The last UN climate change conference took place in Copenhagen in December 2009. Before that conference, a global campaign put pressure on governments. But the talks failed to deliver a comprehensive, legally binding agreement, causing investors to lose confidence in a low-carbon economy and delaying progress by several years.

Many fear a similar outcome in 2015, given that conditions seem even less conducive to agreement. Preoccupied by crisis, the world's leading economies seem unwilling to make significant new emissions-reduction commitments.