Bali Climate Change Agreement - Yippee!

I guess that Avaaz petition I signed (along with 100,000 Canadians) and the stern emails I sent John Baird, the Environment Minister, and Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, must have worked (ha, ha, ha), as Canadian (and U.S. and Russia) stopped blocking the progress of a UN agreement after pressure from other countries (oh, and me, of course).

From the David Suzuki website, the blog entry for today from one of the people at the conference from the David Suzuki Foundation, http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Bali_Blog/ :

BALI BLOG

A place for all things related to the UN climate change conference in Bali, Dec. 3-14.
December 15, 2007


Breakthrough in Bali


After long delays and all-night negotiations, political leaders at the UN climate conference in Bali finally hammered out a deal that will launch negotiations to put the world on a path towards deeper emission cuts after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

It was a long, exhausting process that went 24 hours into overtime. But in the end, Canada and the U.S. bowed to pressure and agreed to stop blocking progress.

The two-week conference produced a "Bali road map," which could put the world on a path to deeper emissions cuts after 2012. The road map includes a range of emission reductions for developed countries of 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

The final hours of the negotiations were extremely dramatic and often emotional. During one stalemate, a clearly frustrated and disappointed Yvo de Boer, the UN's climate chief, broke down in tears and left the stage.

Talks were on the brink of falling apart after the U.S. stood firm in its position that a Bali road map must include a special exemption for weaker U.S. targets.

But a few hours later, after intense international pressure, the U.S. caved and agreed to move forward with the rest of the world.

Later in the afternoon, Canada stood alone with Russia in supporting an option for the Bali road map that ignored strong science. Country after country spoke out in favour of including the strong scientific language in the deal. Canada eventually backed down and changed its position so as not to block the overwhelming consensus.

Canadian environmental groups gave the deal a qualified welcome (read our news release here).

It's great that political leaders in Bali were able to come to an agreement on the need for deeper targets beyond 2012. Now it's time to start turning talk into action.

Posted by Sarah Marchildon at December 15, 2007