As a carbon dioxide molecule with at least a hundred years of life ahead of me, I was concerned to hear about an international conference on climate change, but then I found out it was to be in Doha, of all places – the capital of Qatar – so there wasn’t much to worry about.

I knew it was one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with abundant oil and gas exports, and energy-gobbling air conditioning because of the high temperatures. It’s a fossil fuel heaven for us CO2 molecules and the price of the petrol at the pumps cheered me up no end. At 12p a litre, the drivers could have lovely big 4x4s, and air-conditioned limos, so it was no wonder that there are more cars per 1,000 population than in the UK – 532 to our 527!

To cap it all, they will be building up to the 2022 World Cup, constructing roads all over the place to connect the planned air-conditioned stadiums. Each tonne of concrete used will produce one tonne of CO2 so it’s not surprising that Qatar tops the world table for CO2 emissions per person, and we like this very much.

With all these excesses of consumption staring them in the face, I was concerned that the international delegates would be serious about the need to stabilise, and then reduce, us CO2 emissions, but, thankfully, they bottled out again.

Most of them had signed the original Kyoto agreement in 1997, with the aim to reduce carbon emissions below the 1990 figure, and they set the date of 2012 to see how well they had done, and to consider new targets.

Some countries had been successful, often accidentally, as in the UK where the coal industry had been decimated in the 1980s to be replaced by North Sea gas, and in Eastern Europe with the collapse of the Russian empire. Some countries, like the United States didn't even try, and others, like China, said it was up to the industrial countries to show the way.

As all the figures show that the planet’s temperature, sea levels, and population have risen in the Kyoto decades, with more than a billion extra people, you might have expected the delegates to take stronger action. The CO2 numbers should have frightened the life out of the conference, as we were only 365 ppm in the atmosphere in 1997, and it’s now 392.

Us molecules are delighted that they have put off decision making until 2015, with implementation from 2020. By then there will be trillions more of us working to keep the planet heating up, and you humans will still be squabbling.