A universal climate change agreement is both necessary and possible — and we need to migrate to the politics of opportunity

Doha failed to fashion meaningful action on climate change but got all nations on one platform

Coal-rich Poland will host the next round of UN climate talks in 2013.

The two-week long UN climate talks came to a close in Doha on Saturday with delegates of 194 countries endorsing another set of greenhouse gas emission cuts between 2013 and 2020.

Declining prices of carbon credits along with the lower probability of Annex 1 or developed countries agreeing to binding commitments after the expiry of first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 may hit the revenues of companies like SRF, ONGC, Navin Fluorine and Chemplast Sanmar, among others, which have registered their projects for the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM).

With prices of carbon permits having declined to a record low of 70 cents per unit, down from the peak of 17 euros, Indian firms — which sell about 90% of their total credits to Europe — might feel the tremors in the next few months.

At the Doha climate change conference, the world agreed to strengthen the framework for future action. But it is now that action is needed

The United Nations climate talks in Doha ended in overtime, in what can be best described a nail-biting finish. This was the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The COP is held once a year to push for action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, so intertwined with economic growth that the world has been haggling for the past 20 years over who will cut and how much.

The Green Climate Fund ( GCF), conceived three years back to help poor countries cope with climate change, remains nothing more than an empty shell.