Fixing the Culture Clash on Climate Targets: David Fickling

There’s a story thousands of years old about the way communication difficulties can thwart the most ambitious projects.

In the Biblical book of Genesis, the survivors of a global flood gather in the Arabian desert to construct a tower, its bricks mortared with crude oil and its pinnacle scraping the heavens. A jealous God scatters the builders across the planet and destroys their common language, ensuring such hubris will never again bear fruit.

The 198 states attending the United Nations climate conference — hosted this year by an Arab petrostate that’s home to the world’s tallest building — face just such a Tower of Babel in their ...