Sara:
Well they don’t get much more nail-biting than this. Back in freezing London on Friday, I went to bed knowing that the talks in Bali were running well over, that the USA were still trying to deny the need for commitments to strong emissions reductions of 25%-40% by 2020, and that there was a real chance of these talks failing.
By the time I awoke on Saturday, the talks had overrun by more than 12 hours, exhausted negotiators had been locked in rooms for much of the night, tears (of frustration/exhaustion?) had been shed by the UN climate chief Yvo De Boer, and a rather un-diplomatic (but in my view well-deserved) outburst of booing had shamed the Bush negotiating team to back down.
When it finally came and the USA agreed to ‘Bali road map’, everyone stood to applaud. So, despite the continuing absence of specified targets, there is now at least a clear agenda for two years more of talked aimed at negotiating a successor to the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. This quest for global co-operation is no short game!
While the Bali outcome will be dismissed as a ‘fudge’ by some – dropping the hard numbers was, after all, the price of getting the US on board – specific emissions commitments surely must now emerge during the vital negotiations of the next two years.