Hundreds of sleep-deprived delegates from 192 nations gave themselves a standing ovation at 3:30 on Saturday morning after days of intensive negotiations over United Nations-sponsored climate talks in Cancun, Mexico. But in reality, the agreements were watered-down, toothless texts that defer all major decisions to next year and seek to provide a smokescreen for the conference’s many failures. Perhaps the biggest emerging development is that some frustrated nations are increasingly going ahead with bilateral projects in the absence of a full multinational framework. They include Norway, Australia and Germany, with Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil, which have gone ahead with bilateral REDD+ projects in the absence of a framework.