Russia’s bloody adventurism in Georgia has left nerves on edge particularly in Warsaw and Prague and throughout the former Soviet world, where memories last a little longer than in other European capitals. Experts quickly noted the energy implications should a proRussian puppet replace the current Georgian government, as seems to be one goal. That the Caspian oil and gas would no longer have safe passage to the West via the Black Sea adds a wrinkle to Russia’s power play. Strange but true, these events doom Kyoto II.

A spat over foreign investments, notably by Russia’s Gazprom, threatens to wreck the EU’s plan to adopt by year’s end a landmark climate change bill that would end gas and electricity monopolies and stoke more energy efficiency and renewable energy use. Ahead of an EU energy ministers meeting Friday, officials said a June deregulation deal forcing utilities to sell their power grids and gas pipelines - or, alternatively, put them under independent supervision - has come unraveled. Germany opposes a “Gazprom clause” in the energy bill that would force non-EU companies buying into EU transmission networks to open their networks to EU investors.