Bali’s Surprise Ending is Fuel for Action

 This past weekend, history was made when the U.S. officially endorsed an international climate change agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali.  After two weeks of being the lead antagonist at the negotiating table, the US delegation responded to international pressure and shocked its fellow delegates with a slight reversal in the final hour.

"The United States will join the consensus" regarding the proposed compromise text, said Paula Dobriansky, the US Under-Secretary of State.  A surge of emotion swept through the hall, and then a collective sigh of relief.

According to the Financial Times, “By supporting the Bali text on Saturday [the US] has accepted that scientific evidence for global warming is unequivocal and that the planet could be in serious trouble unless emissions are cut. Such an endorsement would have been inconceivable only six months ago.”

The Bali agreement is certainly a step in the right direction – a step that organizers in Bali were unsure the US would be taking until that very last session, ending at 4:30 am. 

For the first time, emissions cuts from deforestation will be addressed by an international climate pact.  Also, provisions were made for technology transference that goes beyond previous pacts.  Additionally, two huge steps were made in the right direction:

1.     China agreed to set carbon emissions goals, while India conceded that the developing world could no longer be regarded as one negotiating bloc – and that developing Asian nations in particular should be held to a higher standard.

2.     The US agreed to a two-track negotiation process which does not mean it will set concrete goals for itself, but that it will allow for separate and escalated goals to emerge amongst the parties that signed on to Kyoto.

Sadly, however, the proposed 25-40% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by the year 2020 were not included in the agreement.  Though the E.U. pushed hard for a timeline and hard numbers, the US rejected the inclusion of concrete goals. 

Ultimately, the negotiations at Bali merely mapped the road for a pact that will be signed in 2009.  This is internationally acknowledged to fall beyond the next US presidential election.  It is expected that the US negotiating team will change completely half-way through negotiations to reflect new leadership, and 1Sky will be working hard with its allies to ensure that the new Congressional and Presidential leadership is committed to tackling the climate challenge.

In the meantime, we have a bumpy road ahead of us.  While the final moments in Bali give the US public a ray of opportunity to hold our government to slightly higher standards, we must vigilantly push for informed and active US participation in the next two years if we are to get a meaningful international agreement in place.  The final pact in 2009 must be stronger than Kyoto (which ends in 2012), and the US must emerge a leader, rather than an obstructionist, once and for all.  This will only happen if we apply strategic pressure at the national level – and confirm that the US public is committed to strong action on climate change.  Please, visit the Take Action section of our site and make a push to get 1Sky endorsed as widely as possible. 

Please read a more detailed account of the Bali negotiations from an observer who attended.