Hard work in Marrakesh

International climate protection is no longer in the limelight. The aim in Marrakesh is to avert any further weakening of the compromise on implementing the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto follow-up conference seeks formulas that will make the legal position absolutely clear and is trying to agree on international inspection and on sanctions against countries that fail to abide by their pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Now it is the usual suspects who will be trying to make the result of the proceedings as non-committal as possible -- Russia first and foremost, but also Japan, Australia and Canada.

They can no longer take cover behind U.S. hesitation now that the United States has officially parted company with the Kyoto process. Much will now depend on the European Union member-states speaking with one voice.

German industrial associations will hear nothing of EU plans for emissions trading, while the fundamental way in which Germany's Christian Democrats and Free Democrats reject any kind of ecological tax calls to mind the line of argument pursued by U.S. President George W. Bush.

-- Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany