Bali Climate Change Agreement Reached After US Changes Course

Days after former Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore delivered an address to the delegates, excoriating his country’s position towards climate change negotiations, the United Stated joined a united world in approving a deal for a roadmap towards addressing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. A compromise allowed the United States to block hard targets to be achieved by 2020, which brought the US into the consensus to continue discussions towards an eventual agreement slated for 2009.

There was last-minute drama when the US delegation threatened to block the agreement over an amendment proposed by India, but dropped its objections after being booed by the delegations, as the room cheered the reversal. The statement in Bali does not provide a firm basis for reducing greenhouse emissions, but does affirm a long-term goal to reverse the spiraling effects of development on the world’s environment and sets out a two-year period to come to an eventual pact.

Many environmentalists see the agreement as an important stopgap measure to keep talks alive long enough for a new United States administration to take a more positive position on climate change during the negotiation period. Gore himself told the group in his address that, "over the next two years the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now. You must anticipate that." He urged an open-ended process which could be speeded on by a more environmentally friendly US government after the 2008 elections.

While the Gore speech to the Bali conference was an emotional moment, New York Times reports credit the position of European Union delegations, led by the German environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, with keeping the process alive. After agreeing to switch from a 2020 target date to goals intended to make changes by the year 2050, the EU delegations threatened to boycott a separate US-led negotiating process, scheduled to begin in Hawaii next month. It was only after it became clear that the US talks would be widely ignored that the Bush Administration’s delegation joined the Bali consensus.

The Bali agreement also could provide a framework for richer nations and companies to earn "carbon credits" by paying for forest protection in developing countries. If implemented, the provision could be crucial in stopping deforestation, particularly in rainforest areas, which are essential to the Earth’s climate balance.

News stories on the Bali agreement: NY Times, BBC, Christian Science Monitor, Guardian Unlimited, The Independent, The Age

Posts on Bali: Oxfam International, David Suzuki Foundation, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Rupert’s Read, Northwest Progressive Institute