The two biggest achievements of the UN Climate Change Summit: the creation of a global fund to help developing nations address climate change, and the agreement to keep talking.

The summit's concluding moment came after all-night talks that had threatened to unravel on Bolivia's objections to the agreement's limited scope. 

The Telegraph reported: "But as exhausted delegates became increasingly impatient, the protests of the radical South American country were swept aside. Apparently losing her temper, Patricia Espinosa, the Mexican Foreign Secretary who presided over the talks, gavelled through the agreement in the early hours of the morning.  Her action was greeted with a standing ovation as relief swept through the conference hall after two weeks of tense negotiating."

Following last years failed talks in Copenhagen, expectations were kept low going into Cancun.  

However, the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, creating urgency for UN delegates.  Next year's conference will take place in Durban, South Africa, and pressure will again be on for delegates to sign a concrete, binding plan for drastically reducing emissions and developing renewable energy.

Notorious holdouts China and the United States may continue to stall the process, however.  The World Wildlife Fund issued a statement reading: 

“The United States got off relatively easy in Cancun, failing to agree to robust reporting and review for its own actions. To build trust in the year ahead, the US should embark on a clear process to pull together its domestic efforts to reduce emissions into a transparent action plan that will put it on the road to a clean energy economy. The United States should then come to Durban ready to join the world in support of a legally binding agreement."

All in all, Cancun was a pleasant surprise for most stakeholders but success will not be achieved until there is something to replace Kyoto.