Malign influence exerted by negotiators for fossil-fuel lobby dramatised in production transferring to London
The anger, frustration and then triumph of reaching a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions was experienced for the first time 27 years ago in Kyoto in Japan.
Early in the morning on 11 December 1997, John Prescott, the then UK environment secretary who died last week, burst into the corridor where half the waiting journalists had fallen asleep, to announce that the rich developed countries had agreed to cut emissions for the first time. He was both elated and exhausted.
