The UN is showcasing the alluring promise of a green economy, focused on tackling global warming.

It is tempting to believe that renewable energy sources are responsible for emissions reductions, but the numbers clearly say otherwise.

It is tempting to conclude that appointing a well connected figure from an emerging market economy could solve the problem.

With Iran having spurned Obama s offers of compromise, it is tempting for the US administration to turn its back on dialogue.

That may be the case, and it may be a tempting argument to make in authoritarian societies that are unsympathetic to beliefs that challenge their own legitimacy.

First, it is tempting to avoid facing the painful events in our lives that might be the cause of our difficulties.

NEWPORT BEACH As we all struggle to comprehend the economic and financial impact of Japan s calamity, it is tempting to seek historical analogies for guidance.

It is tempting for Europeans to project their own history onto Asia and to view current developments there as a mere repetition, if not an imitation, of what occurred in Europe.

While it is tempting to scapegoat the common currency, the fact is that the euro has brought huge economic and financial benefits to Germany, owing to increased trade, greater price stability, more competition, and improved efficiency.

Although it is tempting to think of this as a purely domestic problem affecting the United States, nothing could be further from the truth.

It would be tempting to use a formula coined during the Cold War to describe the comparative evolution of the United States and the Soviet Union and to apply the notion of competitive decline to the relationship between the US and Europe.

It may be tempting to declare that anyone who kills (or participates in killing) innocent people does not deserve to live. But is revenge a worthy motive for a state s actions, especially toward its own citizens?

The UN is showcasing the alluring promise of a green economy, focused on tackling global warming. In fact, the summit is striking at the wrong target, neglecting the much greater environmental concerns of the vast majority of the world.

Watching the economic rise of China, Russia, and India, and the American debacles in the Middle East, it was tempting to believe that US power really did not count for very much anymore.

It was so tempting for a minister or a senior technocrat to explain that consolidation had to start immediately, because the 90 threshold was approaching, that most of them did not resist it.

It is almost tempting to think that America s great Cold War opponent, the Soviet Union, with its sudden disappearance 15 years ago this month, left its own Trojan horse for America the poisoned gift of unilateralism.

Today, the world s overwhelming strategic problem is to adjust to a new economic and political geography, in which the weight of the global economy is shifting eastwards and southwards. It is tempting to conclude that appointing a well connected figure from an emerging market economy could solve the problem.

It is tempting to dismiss other countries experiences, particularly after Egypt s youth led grassroots movement delivered something that no one thought possible (toppling in just 18 days a president that had ruled with an iron fist for 30 years).

Here, after all, is a narrative that neatly aligns the promise of prosperity with the struggle against injustice. As Pope Francis said on his recent trip to Latin America corruption is the moth, the gangrene of a people.