We rated this promise Stalled in our last update based on the lack of substantive progress made at the United Nations" climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009 and in Cancun in 2010.  Those meetings produced nonbinding commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions but no follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol -- the multinational treaty, adopted in 1997, that placed binding emission reduction targets on its signatories.

The 2011 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, was seen as the last chance to renegotiate or replace the Kyoto Protocol before its expiration in 2012. The conference was also the Obama administration"s final opportunity to represent the United States in U.N. climate talks before the 2012 presidential election.

The Durban conference concluded on Dec. 11, 2011. The agreement -- known as the Durban Platform -- bore more fruit than its predecessors. The U.N. member states agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2017. The members simultaneously agreed to negotiate a new binding agreement by 2015 that would subsequently go into effect by 2020. This portion of the platform is notable because it is the first time that prominent emerging economies such as China and India have consented, at least in theory, to binding emission commitments. The fact that the Kyoto Protocol does not apply to developing nations like China was a chief reason why the United States never ratified the agreement. Finally, the platform outlined an $100 billion Green Climate Fund to assist developing countries in reducing emissions.

While these details may seem to bode well for the fight against climate change, environmental policy experts have nevertheless expressed objections about the Durban Platform. Among these objections is that the agreement delays implementation of a new treaty for almost a decade. Meanwhile, no immediate action is being taken on an international basis to limit global temperatures from rising by over 2 degree Celsius -- the point at which scientists say that the effects of  global warming will become catastrophic.    

We reached out to Steve Herz, an attorney at Sierra Club's international climate program, for his opinion on the Durban Platform. He agreed that the commitment to a new treaty and Green Climate Fund are positive developments but that there are many issues left unaddressed.

"Two big pieces of work were not done,” said Herz in an e-mail interview. "First, despite recognizing that current efforts are not sufficient to meet the 2 degree Celsius target, the Durban platform includes a very weak ‘work plan" to increase the ambition of national pledges. Second, while the Green Climate Fund was created, the parties did not agree on how the money to fill it will be raised.”

President Barack Obama"s promise was to work with the other U.N. member states on addressing climate change. Given the administration"s participation in several climate conferences, it would be inaccurate to say that it has not worked with the U.N. on this issue.

Yet clearly more work is needed to address climate change in a global, unified way. The Durban Platform, while imperfect in the eyes of many policy experts and environmentalists, may have been the best possible outcome given the past intransigence of nations like China in agreeing to binding limits on emissions. For this reason, we rate this promise as a Compromise.