Sunday, December 16, 2007

Bali Climate Change Talks End

There was quite a lot of drama, and it seems the talks ended on a good note with the US agreeing to 2-years of negotiations on decreasing greenhouse gas emissions together with the rest of the world. It wasn't Al Gore, whose criticism of his country's behavior garnered a round of applause, nor was it the scathing remarks of green NGO's, nor was it the threat of political suicide at home, that at the very last minute changed the mind of the US delegate and join the rest of the world in legally binding negotiations to avert further climate change. It was the very stern reprimand of Papua New Guinea that changed the tides. I quote the Papua New Guinea representative, "If you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of. Please get out of the way."


Although, I am skeptical about how thing will proceed in the next two years, I am hopeful because IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri is satisfied with the outcome of the talks. The IPCC, together with Al Gore, have jointly been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the film An Inconvenient Truth.

Watch the last days of Bali on video.

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