The world's global heating negotiations won't dare confront the crucial point that there's a limited budget of carbon that we can afford to emit.

When Figueres says that allotting part of the carbon budget to each country "would presume that there is no advance in technology [to reduce emissions]", that is an error. It is just the opposite: if the US is allowed to release X more tons of CO₂, and through advanced technology it cuts the CO₂ release of a certain activity in half, it could therefore do twice as much of that activity.