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Bali Climate Conference Roundup, Day 1
by Stacy Feldman - Dec 3rd, 2007
Day one of the much anticipated two-week Bali climate change conference kicked-off with quite a bang yesterday: Australia ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and stole the show.
The decision has left the US as the only industrialized nation to continue to rebuff the global treaty with clearly no intention to change its status.
But it wil be "very open and flexible" and won't be "a roadblack."
We'll see.
In the meantime, the unofficial US delegation -- made up of Al Gore, John Kerry, and others -- remains the favorite of the media.
The US Senate's delegation to Bali, led by climate change denier and alleged all-around liar Lary Craig, makes a mockery of that body's commitment to solving climate, as Think Progress astutely explains.
It claims that behind-the-scenes, the US delegation is on the hunt for partners in China and India who will help to derail plans for an agreement that forces mandatory emissions cuts.
The EU, on the contrary, is serious. On day one, its leaders vowed to pursue an international, binding pledge of 50 percent reductions in carbon emissions below 1990 levels by 2050. For every major industrialized nation.
Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations, firmly laid out the UN's expectations for the climate change conference below:
Here's the opening press briefing:
Reuters has a short "factbox" of Bali's major players.
The Economist gives a useful primer in "Getting Serious about Bali," especially on the importance of sealing a deal on deforestation action.
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