Scientists agree that the Earth's atmosphere is getting warmer. There is consensus too that this warming will be the paramount environmental threat in the next century, as predictions see oceans swallowing beaches, tropical diseases spreading north and more species facing extinction.
While climate change science is getting clearer, climate change politics remains in a murky quagmire where policy makers quibble over technical points.
This dilemma will take center stage when science and politics collide in The Hague from Monday to Nov. 24. It is here that more than 160 governments and countless other stakeholders will convene for the sixth Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, popularly known as COP6.