Wednesday, December 5th: deep within the bizarre landscape of minarets, oil refineries that stretch out into the sandy horizon, and a wildly ad hoc, opulent, and strangely 1970’s-going-on-the-future skyline, the annual UNFCCC conference moves along in its second week. In these last days of COP 18, much still remains open and on the table. It appears that there will be a second commitment period to the KP, but what will it look like? Progress on the Durban Platform inches forward – but will any solid groundwork be laid for the 2015 climate agreement? Overall, ambition throughout this COP has been extremely low, with only the most vulnerable nations pressing for fast and dramatic action. But outside the dry, deadlocked negotiations at the Qatar National Convention Center, things seem…