The 17th Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) held in Durban, South Africa, since Nov. 28 agreed Sunday to start work in 2012 to write a comprehensive treaty that will require both developed and developing countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. According to a road map called the Durban platform, adopted at COP17, the terms for the treaty will be agreed on by 2015 and the treaty will go into effect beginning in 2020.

Although COP17 produced a concrete result, regrettably Japan did not play a visible role in giving birth to it. This is due to its decision to refuse to accept a new greenhouse gas reduction obligation if the Kyoto Protocol, the current emission agreement, is extended. In 1997 Japan played an important role as chair at a Kyoto meeting to create the protocol. But Japan's behavior in COP17 has lowered its say and position in international negotiations on climate change. Japan needs to make efforts to play a positive role in such negotiations of the future.

COP17, which crafted the agreement after 48 hours of extra work from the originally scheduled Dec. 9 end to the conference, strikes a contrast with COP15 held in Copenhagen in 2009, when participating countries failed to agree on a new emission reduction treaty. The agreement in Durban is a modest but meaningful success considering that China and the United States, respectively the world's No. 1 and No. 2 emitters, together responsible for some 40 percent of the global emissions, and emerging economies such as India and Brazil will eventually come to bear obligations to reduce their emissions once the new treaty becomes effective.