Global climate policy:change in the air?

Four months ago, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd publicly floated an initiative to develop what he called an Asia-Pacific Community, through which leaders of all the key countries in the region would be able to come together. His proposal was greeted mostly with a mixture of quiet puzzlement and outright scepticism. But this is an idea that is not going away. Over the course of the next twelve months or so I expect momentum will be built for taking it further. As this happens, the emphasis in discussion will soon shift from whether or not this initiative will proceed to focus increasingly on the modalities of how it will proceed.