It wasn't an easy conference. When Al Gore declared that "My own country, the United States is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that" you could have heard a pin drop in the audience. The look on the American delegation was priceless: aghast! Turkana had a good diary earlier on the headlines.
"We have a compromise, which is a good situation for everybody," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said without expanding.
Senior US negotiator Harlan Watson, asked how talks were going, said: "Swimmingly", echoing Coulter's abominable take on how well Afghanistan's war was doing.
"The Bush administration still says that if you want to play, you have to do it our way, which is really code for not doing anything," said Greenpeace political chief Shane Rattenbury.
In the end the planet lost valuable time. More over the bar.
The Aussies were quick to point an accusatory finger at the US.
Just hours earlier angry disagreements broke out between nations. The US representative, Secretary-General Paula Dobriansky, was booed from the floor for refusing to accept the final draft worked out with Europe, China and India. An hour later the US delegation was forced to back down and promise they would come to a consensus, opening the way for the Bali road map to be signed.
Even the Wall Street Journal weighs in with this unusual commentary:
America’s official negotiators are seen as an increasingly irrelevant nuisance, while the unofficial second-string team is treated like the varsity, holding meetings with ministers and taking part in high-level strategy talks
The Canadian Press was nonplussed by Gore's remark:
But at that point in his speech, Gore used a hockey analogy, referred to two of the greatest Canadian players ever to play the game and threw a bodycheck at the stance Canada has taken at the UN summit. Canada is among several rich countries siding with the United States against poorer countries and the European Union in a squabble that threatens to squelch the world climate talks.
Germany's Spiegel gloated at the US discomfiture:
Paula Dobriansky, leader of the US delegation, and her colleague James Connaughton found themselves the targets of naked animosity. When Dobriansky announced that the US would not sign up for the Bali roadmap, boos echoed through the room. The Americans were sharply attacked by several delegations. "If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way," said a US environmental activist representing Papua New Guinea.
On the whole, the Europeans view The US as the world's largest and dirtiest economy and they are hoping that the dramatic findings of the IPCC report - and a 2009 change in presidential leadership - might reshape US policy.
News Asia reported that:
The EU on Tuesday again dangled the prospect of even steeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions across Europe to fight global warming -- but only if the rest of the world follows suit.
UK's Times chimed in with this blunt remark:
Many delegates appear to be negotiating in the hope that President Bush will be succeeded in 2009 by a president more willing to accede to cuts in greenhouse gases — just as Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has immediately signed up to the Kyoto Protocol. "Politics is changing in lots of parts of the world rally fast," Mr Benn said.
On the other hand the African Science News are somewhat miffed at the Europeans:
Opposition groups charge that a predetermined outcome is a political agenda of European Green Party. European liberal groups participating at the ongoing Climate change conference in bali, Indonesia have been accused of hijacking its agenda.
The Boston/Herald via AP reports that:
BALI, Indonesia - Uganda gets plenty of sun, making it a great spot for solar energy. There’s only one problem: In one of the world’s most impoverished nations, few people can afford an imported solar panel. Poorer countries accuse the rich of pressuring them to control emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, while refusing to provide them with technology needed to do so without hurting their economies.
Auntie Beeb (UK's BBC) has this angle going for them:
The EU had pressed for a commitment that industrialised nations should commit to cuts of 25-40% by 2020, a bid that was implacably opposed by a bloc containing the US, Canada and Japan. The final text does not mention specific emissions targets, but does acknowledge that "deep cuts in global emissions will be required to achieve the ultimate objective" of avoiding dangerous climate change
Middle East Online has ziltch on the Bali conference, not even a footnote.
The UK's Independent has this sobering comment:
The EU had insisted the figures were in the document because they are based on the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and an ambitious road map was needed. But the US demanded - and won - their removal, claiming they could "prejudge" outcomes of negotiations over the past two years.
Le Monde coldly remarks that the conference has achieved its objective, that of fixing a date, 2009, to resume talks.
La conférence de Bali a rempli son mandat initial : élaborer un plan de travail précis et fixer une date de conclusion : 2009. "C'est une percée, a commenté Stavros Dimas, le commissaire européen à l'environnement. Nous avons un agenda, nous allons définir les fondations du futur accord, nous avons un sentier bien tracé."
Our own rag, the pro-American (read pro-Bush, since we have the Shannon Airport at the CIA's full disposal to use as it pleases) Irish Times had this to say, short of congratulating the US in engineering the breakthrough:
Nearly 200 nations agreed at UN-led talks in Bali today to launch negotiations on a new pact to fight global warming after a reversal by the United States allowed a historic breakthrough. Washington said the agreement marked a new chapter in climate diplomacy after six years of disputes with major allies since President George W. Bush pulled out in 2001 from the Kyoto Protocol, the main existing plan for combating warming.
Typically, not a single mention of the conference in the Russian Pravda but instead manage to take a couple of digs at the US: Russia will dump their dollars and SoD Gates is running out of allies!
From Italy we have the Corriere Della Serra who reports the good news:
«Da Bali arriva una buona mediazione che apre una concreta speranza per la lotta ai mutamenti climatici. L'ipotizzabile cambio dell'amministrazione degli Stati Uniti sarà un ulteriore passo per rendere credibili impegni ancora evanescenti»
Nothing about the Bali conference on all Japanese news: I trawled JapanNews, Japan Times, Japan Today, even Yahoo Japan. Nothing. One outlet complained about Australia's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, because he dared to criticize Japan's barbarian whaling practices.
OTOH, China News via xinhuanet.com lauds the outcome of the conference:
The Bali Roadmap was adopted after the U.S. delegation dropped its opposition to a proposal by the main developing nation bloc, the G77, for rich nations to do more for the developing world to fight rising greenhouse emissions.
and notes that the next conference will be held in Poznan, Poland.
There is of course a lot more coverage on the Bali conference but overall the tenor of the roundup is positive.
Fernando Tudela, a senior Mexican official, said the Bali talks looked set to postpone some thorny issues until 2009, when the post-2012 pact is scheduled to be sealed in Copenhagen. "The mother of all battles will be in 2009," he said. "This is just a warm-up."
Indeed. We've only just begun, to paraphrase Ms Carpenter.