The tough task ahead of finding a new international framework to tackle global warming was underlined at the weekend when the US effectively rejected key elements of the "Bali Roadmap" agreed on Saturday.
Within hours of the historic agreement being adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference - with the reluctant assent of the US delegation - the White House issued a statement saying it had "serious concerns" about aspects of the deal.
"The negotiations must proceed on the view that the problem of climate change cannot be adequately addressed through commitments for emissions cuts by developed countries alone. Major developing economies must likewise act," it said. "Trends in the major developing economies now conclusively establish that emissions reductions principally by the developed world will be insufficient to confront the global problem effectively," the White House said, in an oblique reference to China.
In Bali, the US delegation first said it could not accept an amendment by the G77 group of developing countries and China that safeguarded their position and then changed its mind after coming under sustained attack at the final plenary session. Under the amendment, developing countries are required to take "nationally appropriate" actions to mitigate climate change "in the context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building".
By contrast, what is sought from all the rich countries, including the US, is measurable and verifiable "commitments or actions, including quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives . . . taking into account differences in their national circumstances".
Earlier, despite strong pressure from the EU and G77, implacable US opposition ensured that specific emission reduction targets were deleted from the mandate for the next round of climate negotiations, due to conclude in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. Neither was any reference made to the aim - accepted by the EU - of seeking to limit the increase in average global surface temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050. Indeed, the science underlying climate change was played down..
Greenpeace complained that the scientific evidence produced this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had been "relegated to a footnote" and it called on governments worldwide to stand up to the "malicious agenda" of a lame-duck US president. But US delegation chief Paula Dobriansky hailed the Bali Roadmap, as "a new chapter in climate diplomacy" and said the US is "very committed to developing a long-term global greenhouse gas reduction emission goal, leading to a halving of emissions by 2050".
Minister for the Environment John Gormley, who led Ireland's delegation at the conference, said "compromise was essential to get all of the parties into the tent". The fact that this had now been achieved "would have been barely imaginable a year ago", he added.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon warmly welcomed the outcome, saying it had achieved three "fundamental benchmarks" for success: launching negotiations on a global agreement, agreeing an agenda for these talks, and agreeing to complete them in 2009.
