An important step forward in addressing climate change

Just a week ago, the prospect of any agreement being reached at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was utterly unimaginable.

But what has been achieved in the Polish city of Katowice builds on what was agreed in Paris in 2015 and marks a significant step forward in the efforts to address climate change.

When the big oil-exporting nations - the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - blocked an endorsement of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it looked like the conference was going to produce only more hot air.