Last week, in desperate last-minute negotiations, the world faced down an effort by the US, Canada and Japan to wreck the crucial Bali Climate Change Summit.
Arriving in Bali, most countries wanted to work towards a new global treaty on climate change as well as new targets for carbon emissions by rich countries. But late last week, the US and Canada teamed up to undermine the talks - the US blocked the whole Bali summit consensus, and when a smaller group of Kyoto treaty countries tried to move ahead without the US, they were blocked by Canada. The summit was in danger of deadlock.
“I am going to speak an inconvenient truth,” former USA presidential hopeful, Al Gore told an audience of several hundred. “My own country, the United States is principally responsible for obstructing progress in Bali.”
In the final hours of the summit, Canada backed down completely and allowed Kyoto countries to agree to strong 2020 targets on carbon emissions, and the US team, now entirely isolated and actually booed by the world’s diplomats, compromised and agreed to call for “deep cuts” and “reference” the 2020 targets. This paved the way for the summit to agree to sign a new global climate change treaty by 2009.
Avaaz have the full story of the campaign with videos and pictures.
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Dec 20th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
There’s an interesting post at Akin (http://akin.blog-city.com/the_mouth_of_babes_1.htm) where the words of the PNG delegate, “talking back” to the US’ words: “We will lead. We will continue to lead but leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow,” he said simply: “either lead, follow or get out of the way”.
jb says: Thanks Sylvia. You refer to the words of the representative from Papua New Guinea, trying to bring the USA to its senses. And as Akin says: If it takes Papua New Guinea and their sense of the obvious effects of climate change to tell the United States to wake up to their responsibilities – so be it – like the Scriptures say – Out of the mouth of babes …
Dec 22nd, 2007 at 9:46 am
Politicians, governed by short term objectives (i.e.being elected) seem reluctant even to discuss the real issue - that the control of greenhouse gasses is incompatible with economic growth.
Far easier to wage a war on terror, than to tell the electorate that their standard of living is going to suffer.