A deal on greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping and aviation sectors could form the basis of a deal at Durban, says Mark Lutes of WWF

Failure to distinguish between environmental instruments and the cash-settled contracts based on them could impose crippling costs, warn Christopher Berendt and Jeremy Weinstein

The Cancún conference will be remembered for bringing the international climate talks back from the brink of disaster. But did it also seal the demise of the Kyoto Protocol? Christopher Cundy reports

The US mid-term elections have thrown US climate and energy policies into even more disarray than they were in before. Gloria Gonzalez asks what they mean for carbon trading, renewables and emissions regulation

With the Democrats’ climate and energy strategy in disarray, industry, investors and environmental groups alike are all asking what comes next. Gloria Gonzalez reports

With federal cap-and-trade legislation off the table, many US emitters perceive their exposure to climate policy to have decreased. But climate risks – and business opportunities – have in fact risen, argues Mark Trexler

President Obama is finally putting his shoulder to the wheel in support of the Kerry-Lieberman climate proposal – but will it be enough? Gloria Gonzalez reports

Last month, the European Parliament grilled José Manuel Barroso’s picks for the new Commission. Philippa Jones reports from Brussels

While it would be a mistake to write Copenhagen off as a complete disaster, it has left international climate policy in disarray – and business, investors and carbon traders asking, so what now? Mark Nicholls reports

Optimists can look to the Copenhagen Accord as potentially providing the foundations for a future global climate agreement. But, for carbon traders and financiers, with more immediate concerns, it is hard to see any upside in Copenhagen’s outcome.

Before the first negotiators had landed in Copenhagen, investors were already downplaying the likely significance of the talks.

This year’s first round of climate talks left the UN’s climate chief encouraged – but in little doubt of the enormity of the task ahead. He talks to Mark Nicholls

It may have worked for SO2, but cap and trade is the wrong answer to the climate change question, say Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel

Voluntary commitments by industry to address climate change have done little so far to cut emissions – but they may have a role to play in the future, says Rory Sullivan