Bali Climate Conference Roundup, Day 3
by Stacy Feldman - Dec 5th, 2007
Today marks the end of day three of the epic Bali climate change conference, and it's unfolding like a spaghetti western. 190 nations. The good. The bad. And the ugly.
America's youth delegation met with the US government's delegation today. The youth scheduled the meeting after discovering that the US may be engaged in some unsavory back-channel negotiations with China and India in attempts to scuttle mandatory emissions cuts in a future deal.
The youth released a media advisory explaining why they're pissed off. Here's the video of the activists before and during the meeting:
Mere gossip, or is there some truth to this? Well, it's certainly not the first time we've heard about it.
Other reports of the bad and the ugly include Japan, Canada, and Australia.
Japan has just proposed a draft climate plan that says nothing about making future targets for emission reductions mandatory by law, and you can bet the omission was no accident.
Being binding by law is what makes Kyoto, well, Kyoto. Japan's delegates say the omission is part of its effort to seek "the common denominator" among the big emitters so that the US isn't shut out of the talks. Environmentalists see a different
scenario of pandering to the US and the birth of an alliance that could chip away at the very fabric of the flailing Kyoto accord.
This has some wondering: Is Japan preparing to dump Kyoto?
Canada is in the same boat. Accusations are flying that it too is lining up with the US against mandatory cuts in emissions, and against the EU.
Greenpeace is scolding Australia -- the nation, you may recall, that received a standing ovation for ratifying the Kyoto Treaty on day one of the conference. They're being attacked for not taking a tougher position on emissions targets.
It seems an odd indictment, given that on the same day, new Primer Minister Kevin Rudd announced "I can unite the world on climate."
China and India, and the developing nations in general, want the developed world to share renewable energy technology at a fraction of the cost. The US is dead set against it for fear of the technology being illegally copied and deployed.
In its stead, the US, along with the EU, has proposed the elimination of tariffs on such technologies.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer gives an update on this issue in his daily state of the play of Bali (below). He says that governments have indicated that they're ready to ensure that more funding is available in more accessible ways for poorer countries through an "adaptation fund."
He also announced that the "special group" designated to come up with the process for how future negotiations should be structured (the agenda and the end date) met for the first time. He reminds us that what flows from this group will end up being "the outcome" of Bali. Here's de Boer's full update:
Praises are still being sung for the EU, the Bali good guys.
In other relevant news, Germany made quite a domestic move on the climate front, a not so subtle nudge to its fellow delegates.
And these activists got shot at while scaling a coal plant in Central Java.
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