The weary delegates may still be too tired to begin the battle for ratification, but after 14 days of protracted wrangling, including more than 50 hours of nonstop negotiation beyond the deadline, the climate conference in Durban has achieved more than anyone initially expected. The unwieldy conference of 194 delegates has, for the first time, committed all the main producers of greenhouse gases to reducing carbon emissions and to a roadmap for a future accord. It has bound all nations in a single legal framework. and it has risen above national interests to show a heartening global commitment to fighting global warming (see page 15).  after the fiasco of the Copenhagen summit in 2009, when inflated ideals were punctured by the self-interest of China and other big carbon producers, there were scant hopes for this follow-up conference to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires next year. Each of the three big polluters, China, america and India, was still reluctant to accept any limits on its emissions without a commitment from the other two. The poorer countries were still determined that the richer industrial nations should compensate them for costly curbs on their carbon emissions. and those forecasting potentially catastrophic change were reluctant to accept anything less than legal commitments to drastic measures to limit warming to two degrees celsius.  after hard-won compromises, the Durban Platform now includes China, the world's biggest emitter, and India, both of whom refused to sign Kyoto, and america, which signed but did not then ratify the protocol. This is a substantial achievement. It is all the more surprising, given the political climate. China's relations with america and the West have frayed as Beijing promotes its global interests and ambitions. India has become increasingly prickly and erratic as its weak government hankers for the world stage without being able to muster the necessary political focus. and as americ