What a Bali Hoo!

The long Climate Change Protocol meeting of 190 countries on the island of Bali has finally come to an end ( a day late) but what is the real outcome in terms of meaningful agreements? There was lots of daily 'news' about this meeting with an apparent late night 'break through' when Paula Dobiansky of the USA team seemed to finally agree that a new climate change protocol would come into force after 2012 when Kyoto runs out (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/16/bali.climatechange). Although all countries now agreed that "deep cuts" in greenhouse gases are necessary, the talks did not develop any actual goals or timetables (they are going to discuss it further for another 2 years). Although the rich countries agreed that poor countries need money to help them deal with climate change, they are not going to pledge any actual cash until after 2012. It has been agreed that money should go to countries to help reduce the cutting down or degradation of forests but there is a fear that these allocations may be 'hijacked' to develop plantations (for palm oil etc?). There is also a fear that climate change money intended to help poor countries deal with climate change could be taken from existing foreign aid budgets. Within 24 hours of apparent agreement, the USA is claiming that developing countries (notably China and India) must expect to make significant cuts in their emissions irrespective of their levels of economic advancement (or all bets are off). It is not only the USA that is looking dubiously at the proposed 25-40% cut in emissions for rich countries as Japan, Canada and Russia appear to be baulking at these values. The prognosis doesn't appear to be good as there is bags of scope for reneging or 'watering down' the deal. Even within the EU, there are already problems with French and German car manufacturers falling out over targets designed to help Europe make a contribution(http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/17/climatechange.carbonemissions). The EU want new cars to be limited to emissions of 120g of carbon dioxide per km by 2012, with severe penalties for exceeding this value. The French car builders (already close to 140g/km) are quite keen on this development but the Germans (still around 180g/km) are horrified. We will see how long the entente cordiale lasts even a a 'local' level!