One might hope that the Bush Administration, still marching to a different drum, will change their tactics here in Bali. While they smile nicely and say they want a negotiation to lead to an agreement in 2009, they are working to kill the key elements crucial for a positive outcome by: blocking agreement when decisions are close to being complete; destroying trust just when it seems things are going well; working to water down technology and finance text to the point of being meaningless, or non-existent; blocking decisions on REDD for no reason; and even proposing mitigation actions for themselves that are weaker than those proposed for developing countries. This administration is determined to have a road crash, leaving behind an empty shell, to be killed by their junk of an unreliable, purely voluntary initiative.

1. Rich countries looking to set hard targets, transfer solutions and get on with a new economy - mostly Europe

2. Poor and growing nations looking for help, willing to put some of their own targets on paper and wanting the West to step up

3. Rich countries who want to pretend that the carbon party that funded our wealth has to be paid for equally by all. Canada, the US and Japan make up this exclusive club.

Steven Earl Salmony, Ph.D., M.P.A.
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/

----brief excerpt-------

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Tears and cheers seal "unthinkable" climate deal

With a last-minute intervention from the top man at the UN, another from the president of Indonesia, booing, hissing, tears and even a call for the US to "get out of the way", a global climate deal was struck today in Bali. The conclusion to the high-level climate summit would have been unthinkable one year ago and as extraordinary as the process which led to it.

And although it is not quite as strong as many had hoped, this is an unprecedented agreement. For the first time, developing nations and crucially the United States have accepted to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
....
Kevin Conrad, representative from Papua New Guinea, put in words what no-one dared say:

"There is an old saying if you are not going to lead you should get out of the way and so I say to the United States: 'We ask for your leadership but if you are not going to lead, leave it to us. Get out of the way.'"

"We have listened very closely to many of our colleagues," replied Paula Dobriansky, chief US negotiator and, after a few more of the dialectic detours which the US delegation has become known for, "we will go forward and join the consensus".

And so the deal is done....

------end excerpt------
See original link at top for source

The US, Canada, Japan and Russia yesterday
shared top dishonour for relentlessly
blocking any reference to the 25-40 per
cent cuts by 2020 in the Bali roadmap.

The United States seized second place
for using its slot at this morning's high-level
roundtable on technology transfer to talk on
everything except transfer of technology....
...
Australia won a rare "dishonourable
mention" for claiming leadership on climate
change and yet staying silent as the US,
Canada, Japan, and Russia strip the Bali
road map of the emissions cut range of 25-
40 per cent by 2020 urged by IPCC...."