Roger Platt, Senior Vice President, Global Policy and Law, U.S. Green Building Council

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres summed up this weekend the hope and frustration that the climate change negotiations -- also known as COP 17 -- uniquely embody. Speaking this weekend to jet-lagged executives from clean energy companies, she recounted hearing an agitated delegate barking into his cell phone: "I can't talk now. I'm at COP 71!"

Well, for many it feels like it may take 54 more years to reach consensus in these delicate, divisive and complex negotiations.