Bali climate conference ends with progress on aims but no clear targets
Mon 17 December 2007
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The Bali conference on a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol concluded with opinions divided on whether the international meeting had made significant progress. Despite finding some common ground, the United States refused to agree to European proposals for specific CO2 targets and ended the conference looking increasingly isolated.
While no exact emission reduction targets were agreed, the 187 nations at the talks agreed 'in principle' to emission cuts of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent by 2020.
The Financial Times said: "America has not budged on the biggest issue. The world's heaviest emitter of carbon dioxide refused to agree to European Union demands for targeted reductions in emissions of between 25 and 40 per cent by 2020. The omission of specific targets from the Bali plan was a regrettable shortcoming, but no reason to call it a failure."
"The summit was far from a failure. It made a good deal of progress. Hopes that the US might relent on targets were always overly optimistic. But Washington's agreement to mandate United Nations-led negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto protocol, which committed nations to stabilising emissions and which the US has yet to ratify, is an encouraging first step. So too is the intention to agree the new treaty by 2009."
The Daily Telegraph reported: "As the finer details of the Bali negotiations emerge, conservationists say the so-called international "road map" to combat global warming lacks a destination."
"Such worries were further fuelled by comments from the United States yesterday, after officials said they had "serious concerns" about future talks geared at setting emission targets. "
However, Hilary Benn, the UK Environment Secretary, described the agreement as an "historic breakthrough".
Keith Allott, the head of climate change at WWF UK said, however: "We are not at all pleased. We were looking for a road map with a destination."
Nelson Muffuh, a senior climate change policy analyst with Christian Aid, said: "The US delegation in particular proved a major obstacle to progress. They appeared to operate a wrecking policy, as though determined to derail the whole process. We were expecting a road map, and we've got one. But it lacks signposts and there is no agreed destination."
Writing in The Guardian, climate campaigner George Monbiot said: "There are still two years to go, but so far the new agreement is even worse than the Kyoto Protocol. It contains no targets and no dates...Benn and the other dupes are cheering and waving their hats as the train leaves the station at last, having failed to notice that it is travelling in the wrong direction."
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