New Scientist: A deal looks likely the political will is there
The countries that signed up to the 1992 climate convention the Conference of the Parties or COP in diplomatese started meeting every year in 1995. The third COP meeting established the Kyoto Protocol, to run until 2012.
The infamous 2009 meeting in Copenhagen failed to extend the protocol beyond 2012. A major sticking point, as ever, was trying to get industrialised countries to sign up to bigger cuts when developing nations were allowed...