There is not much good news when it comes to managing the global system. The euro is (still) in crisis; trade talks are stuck; the Group of 20 has run into the sand; and then there is climate change – the greatest global challenge met by the greatest global short-sightedness. Or are we missing something?

Certainly, the 2009 Copenhagen conference ended in stalemate, and the “climategate” affair has given sceptics a field day. Also, the financial crisis has turned attention away from the climate challenge. But, at a bad time in the news cycle just before Christmas, the parties to the UN climate convention, meeting in Durban, agreed that a global legally binding approach to controlling emissions would be undertaken, to be signed in 2015 and implemented from 2020.

Europe played a vital role in Durban. But the key shift was from China. Under pressure from vulnerable and poor states in Africa and elsewhere, it has shifted from naysayer to supporter of a global deal. The US found itself outflanked – with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for company.