For the moment, the struggle is to stop some rich countries giving less.
In some rich countries, political support gives renewable producers a friendly, stable market.
Some rich countries are seeking new rules under the UN climate convention, which campaigners say would allow them to gain credit for "business as usual".
Some rich countries, such as Canada and Australia, are eager for a multilateral pact in order to protect their interests as companies based in other countries consolidate.
The refusal of some rich countries to accept a second set of commitments under Kyoto (the current ones run out in 2012) was a big stumbling block in Copenhagen.
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Since not even the equality-conscious Nordics have yet managed to get rid of the employment gap altogether, it seems unlikely that gains on this scale will be realised in the foreseeable future, if ever, but there is certainly scope for improvement in some rich countries and even more in emerging markets.
It argues that for much of its history America (and to some extent other rich countries) enjoyed the benefits of free land, lots of immigrant labour and powerful new technologies.
Some poor countries think that rich ones simply want an excuse to bust their generic drug industries.
After all, Islam's rules have been around since the seventh century, and some Muslim countries have been rich since the discovery of oil.
To some extent, government budgets in rich countries stabilise the economy automatically in booms and busts.
While holding back the biggest plums of market access, rich countries have offered some concessions in the past few years.
It is tempting to think that some of the gaps in the rich countries' labour forces could be filled by immigrants from poorer countries.
It remains a reasonable idea for most rich countries to keep some nuclear power in their portfolio, not least because by maintaining economic and technological stakes in nuclear they will have more standing to insist on high standards for safety and non-proliferation being applied throughout the world.
Since women make up half the talent pool (though their interests and preferences are often different from men's, of which more later), getting more of them into work should help alleviate the shortage, all the more so since there are now more university-educated women than men in most rich countries (and some emerging ones too).
It can be argued that manufacturers bear some responsibility for the amount of waste rich countries produce.
Nor did they take into account the preferential low tariffs that rich countries already offer to some of the poorest countries.
To be sure, the World Trade Organisation has enabled some poor countries to win trade disputes against rich ones.
Some cynics attribute this unusually generous response from rich countries to the fact that so many tourists from those countries were killed.
Some consumer and environmental movements have flourished in rich countries, even though Olson's theory suggests that firms and polluters should have a strong organisational advantage over consumers and inhalers of dirty air.
All rich countries subsidise their film industries to some extent to protect them against the Americans.
Thanks to the Kyoto treaty on climate change, which came into effect in February, most rich countries regulate emissions of carbon dioxide in some manner.
In rich countries they are often inconsistent: too strict about some sorts of waste and worryingly lax about others.
Some point out, for instance, that it would help big, rich countries that have better access to the technology.
And if the less rich among the existing member countries are not to give up some of their gains, who will pay for enlargement?
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But the rich world has also at some point to acknowledge that much aid to countries under unreformed governments has in the end been wasted.
That explains why, among rich countries, Spain, Greece, Italy and Belgium have some of the largest grey economies and why America, Canada and Switzerland have much smaller ones.
Across rich countries the share of those aged over 25 who have had some form of higher education is now 33%, against 28% of men in the same age group (see chart 3 for individual countries).
In a recent study economists at the OECD found that America does indeed do well on some measures, such as breast-cancer survival rates and cervical-cancer screening, compared with other rich countries.
Some may be quick to point out that there are plenty of risky and corrupt oil and natural gas-rich countries who still manage to attract international investment.
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