Climate deal looks like mission impossible

After two weeks of heated debates, mass demonstrations and intense lobbying, the United Nations Climate Change Conference will close on Friday in Durban, South Africa. But reaching any binding deal on carbon emissions, which hit a historical high last year, seems to be mission impossible.

That should not come as any great surprise as major world leaders did not bother to attend the meeting, known as COP-17, or give any pledges of support.

If you live in the United States, as I do these days, you may not even know there has been such a meeting. News media have rarely mentioned it. Major newspapers have pretty much kept it in the blog sphere. Watching CNN America every day for the past two weeks, I haven't seen one report on COP-17.