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Del.icio.usby Dan Shepard, Information Officer, UN DPI
It was one day late but countries achieved a major breakthrough on international climate change action at 2:31pm Bali time on Saturday. It was not without high drama featuring plenty of twists and turns along the way on a day when many delegates had planned to catch flights home.
It even took the special intervention of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to exhort delegates to complete what seemed like hopelessly deadlocked talks.
Yodhoyono called on countries to complete "the most difficult mile," of an "exhaustive marathon." He told delegates that we could not allow "the human race and the planet to crumble because we cannot find the right words."
The Secretary-General, who returned to Bali after a visit to Timor-Leste, said he was reluctant to speak again to the conference but that he was disappointed in the progress that had been made. "The hour is late. It is time to make a decision." He appealed to delegates not to "risk everything you have achieved so far."
After a morning of false starts and false hopes, mis-communications and misunderstandings, countries agreed on a roadmap to launch negotiations toward a global, comprehensive agreement to address climate change. The Bali decision sets out an agenda that frames the discussions that will take place over the next two years and sets a deadline of 2009 to complete the negotiations.
After agreement was reached, the Secretary-General issued a statement strongly welcoming the outcome and saying that the Bali Roadmap achieved all three of the main objectives. "The Bali Roadmap that has been agreed is a pivotal first step toward an agreement that can address the threat of climate change, the defining challenge of our time."
But the agreement did not come painlessly. On a key provision, concerning the obligations of developing countries in the future negotiations, India, speaking for developing countries, said that alternate wording had been agreed to during the night. And then Bangladesh said that language concerning the least developed countries and small island states had been omitted. The Philippines said the phrase "on the basis of equity" had been omitted. And then the United States said it could not accept the formulation that was put forward but offered to keep working until an agreement could be found.
Then South Africa, responding to the US, said developing countries had voluntarily moved to accept new obligations for their national actions on climate change that were "measurable, reportable and verifiable," a concession that only a year ago, he said, "would have been unthinkable." South Africa asked the US to reconsider its position.
Then an avalanche of countries took the floor in support of the developing country position, many asking the US to state their reservations separately and not block a consensus.
US Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky took the floor again and said the US wanted a roadmap and wanted to be part of the roadmap.
"We are very committed to long-term greenhouse gas emission reductions," and she said the US would work with other large emitters to halve global emissions by 2050. And then she said the US "will go forward and join the consensus," which was followed by a thunderous ovation.
"It feels like we are in a movie with lots of plots," said the delegate from Egypt.
After full adoption by the plenary, countries thanked the US for joining the consensus and thanked the secretariat of the Climate Change Convention and the Indonesian government for hosting the Conference.
Digg | Del.icio.usBy Curtis Moore, Independent Consultant and a Former Counsel, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
It is Thursday of the second week of the climate negotiations in Bali, which is the traditional day to reach agreement--or not--at international global warming negotiations. But do not confuse an agreement -- if there is one, and there almost certainly will be--with a solution. A Bali roadmap may be a great accomplishment, but it is not a solution, nor will it lead to one. A solution is what is desperately needed because the peril posed by global warming is far more grave and imminent than all but a few realize.
The Earth is approaching--some believe it may have already passed--a half dozen tipping points. These are infinitesimally small changes that trigger sudden, often violent and irreversible change. Because of the extended delay from the development of science until its restatement by the IPCC, none of these considerations is before negotiators in Bali. But one government in the world has considered these facts, then adopted the most comprehensive, multifaceted and aggressive program to combat global warming in the world. That government, which will come as no surprise to many, is California.
Continue reading "California Suite Music"
Digg | Del.icio.usBy Curtis Moore, Independent Consultant and a Former Counsel, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Negotiators in Bali are in theory supposed to produce a "roadmap" to future agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. What might emerge instead, however, is a roadmap to a confrontation of historic proportions, a rematch between George Bush -- or, at least, his surrogates -- and his opponent in the 2000 campaign for the Presidency, former Vice President Al Gore.
The two could not be further apart on an issue than they are on global warming. Bush is casual and sanguine, Gore urgent and demanding. Bush’s emissaries to Bali, to their credit from their perspective, have thus far succeeded beyond all expectations in obstructing and slowing negotiations. The result has been, in the words of one journal that specializes in covering the proceedings, a "shift" in tone, with parties "already casting blame for the apparent failure of talks" in one arena.
Ten years ago negotiations reach a similar stage in Kyoto, when they seemed hopelessly bogged down. Then Gore, whose signature issues even then were the threats of global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion, arrived unexpectedly on a White House jet. In a matter of about 13 hours he forged the consensus that became the Kyoto Protocol.
For the past several days Gore has been in Oslo, Norway to accept the Nobel Prize for Peace for his work to raise public concern over global warming. By all accounts his talks have been stemwinders, with an "almost historic aura," according to one observer.
Thursday, Gore arrives in Bali where the situation today is much the same as 10 years ago in Kyoto. But on this occasion, those who have created the logjam are representatives of the United States.
Continue reading "The Roadmap"
Digg | Del.icio.usJohn Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts in the United States, came to Bali today representing Congressional leaders. Still wearing a stiffly pressed suit while everyone else in Bali is dressed more casually, the Senator called for the Bali conference to result in a "strong mandate based on science."
"We believe that there is a significant transformational effort now taking place in the US. The US is going to lead." New legislation under consideration in the Senate, he says, would implement a cap and trade system that would contribute to greenhouse gas emissions of 65-70 per cent by 2020.
Kerry was adamant that developing countries fully participate in any new process on climate change, adding that the lack of an adequate process to bring in developing countries doomed the chances of joining the Kyoto Protocol. "This has to be achieved globally." Rich countries have to help, through technology transfer and technical assistance, but developing countries have to take on best practices and avoid the mistakes we made since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution."
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