The recently concluded two-week conference in Doha, Qatar, marked the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

This commentary provides an analysis of the outcomes, arguing that insofar as the process did achieve the key procedural goals of securing a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, seeing the AWG-LCA track draw to a close, and continuing to shape discussions under the Durban Platform, Doha can be measured a "success." But insofar as concrete or substantial progress was made on key issues including the architecture of a post-2020 agreement, mitigation and financing commitments, the outcomes were woefully inadequate.