Putting the 'Can' in Cancun (UPDATED) (PHOTOS)

After a long and drawn-out two weeks in Cancun, hope prevailed over obstructionism at the eleventh hour as 193 nations -- including the U.S. -- came together to accept a climate agreement, restoring faith in a UN process badly battered by last year’s climate talks in Copenhagen.  

While the deal reached in Cancun has some areas of concern and falls short of a much-needed fair, ambitious and binding global climate treaty, it nonetheless makes progress on several critical issues, setting up the potential for a legally binding deal in Durban, South Africa next year.  After the Cancun agreement was finalized at 4:30 a.m. (!!!) on Saturday morning, I joined members of the Global Campaign for Climate Action for a celebratory photo op to express our hopes and aspirations for action in the months ahead. 

The Cancun agreement clearly has re-energized the global climate movement's drive to work for bold solutions. That shot in the arm comes not a moment too soon, as we still have a lot of work ahead of us to ensure that the Obama administration is a leader, not a laggard on climate change.  We've already reported on how the US repeatedly blocked progress in Cancun before joining the final agreement, and we need to turn that dynamic around and push the U.S. to create constructive solutions to the climate crisis, both at home and abroad. 

Cancun may be over, but 1Sky's work to hold our elected officials accountable to bold climate action will continue.  Cancun has opened a window of opportunity -- now it's up to us to climb through it!