– Abstract
After having long denied or minimized the existence of climate changes, the international community is finally taking stock of their importance. Rhetoric and practices, faced with the acknowledgement of economic, strategic and humanitarian consequences of climate imbalance, are evolving. For instance, the French president has made a number of announcements and the United States, even though their official position has not evolved, are witnessing the emergence of many non governmental local actions. Yet, difficulties inherent to this phenomenon (scientific imprecision, emphasis on the short term rather than the long term) keep privileging statu quo, that is to say States’ inaction to prevent climate change. The Kyoto Protocol, far from solving the problem definitely, has to be praised as a laudable effort in view of world cooperation on this matter: it implements original and flexible articulations on which many local initiatives rely.
