Bali Climate Conference Roundup, Day 10

Day ten of the two-week Bali climate talks, the first day of high-level ministerial meetings, looks a whole lot like days one through nine. US vs. the world.

Australia and a slew of other nations urged the US to accept the text in the early draft of the conference decisions document. The doc states that industrialized nations need to cut emissions in the range of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to head off catastrophic climate change. It's not a legally binding statement. It's a statement of principle, a guideline, a goal. And the numbers come straight from the IPCC scientists.

And yet, the US still won't budge.

Perhaps laying out specific emissions guidelines to steer future talks is just "too ambitious" at this stage, said UN head Ban ki Moon. Perhaps. Here's more from the secretary general:

Having said that, it looks as though talks are headed toward producing a vague plan to negotiate a replacement deal for the Kyoto accord by 2009. Sans mention of any numeric goals and targets.

Hmmm. Two full weeks on the island of Bali to hash out a mere timetable for the new treaty? And that's still not a given. Here's German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel on the matter:

"I do not need a paper from Bali in which we only say, `OK, we'll meet next year again. How we can find a roadmap without having a target, without having a goal?"

More frustration, this time from Munir Akram, a Pakistan ambassador and the spokesman for the group of 77 developing nations:

"Talks must have an objective. If we have a target, then we can construct the means to achieve that target. At the moment there is no target. There is no acceptance of a target."

And here's Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey, who chairs the special House committee on energy independence and global warming:

"The president has said he has aspirational goals; it's now clear that they are procrastinational goals."

Peter Goldmark, director of the climate and air program at Environmental Defense, let the developing nations have it too:

"While the U.S. has been smiling and nodding a great deal, their words have been those of Dr. No. The G-77 response has been to completely fuzz up in turn the terms of what they will commit to discuss."

(Source: Bloomberg News)

At least the UN has decided to offset its Bali emissions, in case the whole thing's a wash.

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