New Delhi, Nov. 25 -- Climate change could be described as a "tragedy of the commons." That is, one where a shared resource, such as the planet's atmosphere, gets degraded because everyone has an incentive to put immediate self-interest above what's good for all.

Seen this way, a pact among all countries to contain carbon emissions has always been a tough ask. That the 2015 UN climate huddle in Paris produced an agreement was almost miraculous, even if we now find that its 1.5deg Celsius cap on global warming was an unrealistic goal. On current trends, this is the decade that the planet will exceed that limit.

This explains the disappointment over 2025 climate talks achieving little beyond vague promises. The crisis calls for urgent res...