Barosso and Danish PM Løkke have both signed off on it.

Hedegaards replacement as environmental minister is Lykke Friis, currently deputy headmistress of the University of Copenhagen. The university has considerable institutional prestige invested in COP15, and as such Friis has considerable personal prestige invested in it as well.

So it could have been worse. COP15 isn't quite dead, and Hedegaard is the best of the three candidates. Hands down, no contest. And Friis becomes a career politician, a role that has always suited her better than university chairmanship, in my considered opinion.

The desirability of a revolving door between the top leadership echelons of the universities is another matter, of course.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.