Breakthrough In Global Warming Talks Isolates U.S.

"Almost every single country stayed in the protocol," Olivier Deleuze, the chief European Union negotiator, said. "There was one that said the Kyoto Protocol was flawed. Do you see the Kyoto Protocol flawed?"

Granted, they had to weaken a number of provisions to get an agreement. Countries can now claim extensive credits for good forest management in order to ease their emissions reduction targets. And at Japan's insistence, the penalties for noncompliance were dropped. But it is a definite step forward.

To quote Deluze again: "I prefer an imperfect agreement that is living to an imperfect agreement that doesn't exist."