By Kevin Gaynor, Larry Nettles, Margaret Peloso, and Ben Lippard

Although it was scheduled to end on Dec. 9, 2011, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) carried on for two extra days and reached a deal that surprised many observers. The so-called "Durban platform" takes significant strides toward the development of a new global agreement on climate change that is binding on all countries. In light of the renewed commitment by the parties to the UNFCCC to pursue a binding treaty under the Durban platform, the parties to the Kyoto Protocol also agreed to a second commitment period to begin in 2013. Read the entire article here.