Reuters: It was a historic moment in UN climate talks: with most countries in favour and only a group of OPEC members objecting, the German environment minister chairing the conference banged down her gavel to launch negotiations on a treaty to fight global warming.
The year was 1995, the minister was Angela Merkel, now chancellor, and the outcome after two years of talks was the Kyoto Protocol, a plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by developed nations.
Merkel was exploiting United Nations rules...